Broken Alliance
by CraZeD UNiT
Summary: Betrayed by one of their own, trapped for a thousand years, five elemental summoners from the city of Zanarkand seek a way to escape their prison and gain vengeance for all they have gone through.
1. Treason Among Us

Broken Alliance: By Crazed Unit

Author's Note- Hey, you fanfic readers! This fic was written by a group of five writers who you most likely know: Auron's Fan, Shadray, Da KeR MysTeRr, Sephirothxx, and Reyavie. Two or three of us have written up this chapter, and we are all extremely proud of it... If you're interested in knowing, each one of us made up our own character (with different personalities that you will encounter soon), resulting in five elemental summoners, who the story will be revolving around. Not everyone in the story is an OC, by the way, as you will meet quite a few people from the game... You are in for quite a few surprises here... (grins)

The first chapter is on the long side...but we had to make it that way for us to completely describe the beginning of everything to you.Read on.

Summary- Betrayed by one of their own, trapped for a thousand years, five elemental summoners from the city of Zanarkand seek a way to escape their prison and gainvengeance for all they have gone through. However, being released from a chamber after a thousand years would cause trouble for anyone, with or without the help of a certain group of summoners and guardians, right?

Disclaimer...  
Sephirothxx: We don't own anything…  
Auron's Fan: That's not true! We own all the OC's!  
Shadray: and this sexy piece of lint that was in my pocket!  
Da KeR MySteRr: -mutters- and the world…  
Reyavie: Ker! You don't own the world!  
Da Ker MySter: …yet… -shifty eyes-  
Reyavie: -smacks forehead and give pleading look to reviewers- Please… just read and review…

And behold...chapter one.Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter One: The Betrayal

_We still don't know how it all began. Everything was so normal—relatively normal. There's no way we could ever be called _normal_…but it was a routine we were all so used to. And then suddenly everything changed. Our world turned upside down. All we took as a certainty was taken from under our feet. _

_We're getting ahead of ourselves. Who is this "we"? Throughout history we were called different names—angels, demons… ghosts, monsters—I guess that is right in a way. We were all of that. But then we were something else— _

_Guardians._

_It was—it still _is—_our job to protect this city with the elemental powers that we have been given. Or cursed with. And we will._

_A single word can mean more than a thousand. For everyone around us we weren't more than that. We were heroes, protectors…Nothing more. Humanity…that was something we couldn't have. But we did. We trusted, felt…we failed._

_Irony dictated we would fail at the hands of one of our own. The one place we would have never seen it coming from. Betrayal runs deep indeed. Unexpected and yet strong and painful. Just like greed…why did we trust so much? That will remain forever unknown. But all that was destroyed in one single moment by a friend's…a brother's hands._

_The wound still bleeds even now, so many centuries after. It will never stop. We cannot forgive. Hate is a part of us all. Revenge is a harsh mistress. We follow it willingly. And we have our duty. We'll always have that. He will die. That we can promise. And the curse we brought to this world with him._

_The different elements that each of us holds…it is our fate to use them not just for ourselves—but for the city. We must protect Zanarkand no matter the cost. Even if that means our lives. The fiends? They won't stop us from doing our job—not anymore. _

_We were once humans. Normal men and women struggling in a cold world. _

_We are nothing more than guardians now…and that's all we will ever be. _

Zanarkand, Eleven of January, 2925

The city awakened slowly to the new day, the rising sun touching the dark buildings throwing light through windows and curtains, gently calling all its inhabitants to awareness. Artificial lights went out as they were no longer needed, random noises beginning to fill the streets as people began leaving the skyscrapers to unknown destinations.

But all of them stopped for a mere moment as the sun finally did its appearance, eyes turning to determinate places in unison as if it had been scheduled.

Towers met those looks.

Gigantic constructions in cylindrical form that surpassed all others with undeniable importance. Six of them, all different, all amazing in their own way distributed as to form a star around the city limits and then a central one, slightly taller than the ones around it.

The second the Sun finally raised totally movement exploded in each of them with a strength that would rivalled the light itself. Elements meshed abruptly, tendrils of magic touching themselves forming what was vaguely a shield encompassing the city while connecting the six buildings whose glory seemed enlarged by the spectacle touching them.

And people smiled as the power grew in intensity until it vanished to form a barely seen dome replacing the shining shield that had been there a moment before. It too faded into nothing. That was an unknown sign for all inhabitants to move, returning to their daily routine.

Not a look was spared to any of the figures standing in the balcony of each tower, watching silently as they lowered their arms as if they were one being. Slowly they raised their heads to each other, slight smiles, muttered greetings, silent displays of encouragement.

Nothing that could make them ignore the slight sadness and weariness in every gesture.

And just then, as if on cue, men and women appeared behind the first figures, heavy cloaks shadowing features that could be used to distinguish them. With a last wave they left and in the next moment the towers were once again nothing more than buildings, no proof of what had just happened to be seen.

_At that time we didn't know what was going to happen. Our lives were set, the way we played that game something that would never be changed. We were dancers to another's tune, merely servants to Lords and Ladies that didn't spare us a single look. But we had each other. We confided, trusted, depended on our brothers and sisters of Fate. The ones shackled by the same constraints…That was the main reason for our failure._

Silence fell over the battlefield. An unnatural silence that seemed to scream louder than any words could have, louder than any human voice. Pyreflies filled the air, their soft lights hanging around the human forms still as statues. That same stillness around was broken a mere second after as they moved.

Two fell to the floor, breathing quickly or just sighing in relief before falling into silence. But one thing could be seen in every face without an exception: worry.

"_Now _do you believe me?" a young male said, raising both eyebrows.

The voice was loud, its tone strong and somewhat mocking. And its owner was much the same. Dark eyes, an ominous blue that even under the sunlight seemed almost black, carrying something all too akin to disgust and scorn. A dim shine in a hard face. The male was tall but skinny to the point where it could almost be confused with being sick—although he wasn't. Strength permeated each vein, each move and gesture. His dark blue robes flowed around him protectively, a large sword resting on the sheath he carried at his waist. He didn't seem to be older than 25.

He continued. "This is the third attack in two days. The fiends have come closer and closer to the city for the past four months and—"

"Shut up already, will you?" Roxi snapped angrily. "We _know _this already, Yevon. What are we,_ stupid_?"

The voice brought the silence back but now it wasn't the calmness that it had reined merely moments before.

She was a woman, probably around her twenties, that was sitting by a side, head on her knees. Light brown hair fell around her in waves till her mid back held by a thin band, the black shirt and trousers meshing with the dark earth she was resting on. Her head rose showing harsh blue orbs and pale skin framing young features, her eyes narrowed in an unspoken warning. The way her hands held the handle of the giant black sword she was holding appeared to be enough to the rest of them.

An unexpected sound broke the tension coldly as the other member of the group stood from the floor.

A large frown appeared on Cassandra's face. "Enough, both of you," she said sharply. The tone of voice, though not cold, clearly stated the woman was not up to deal with any more arguments. She seemed not much older than the other girl but clearly younger than the young man, wearing the same type of clothing as her female counterpart only in a shadowy grey colour. Also dark eyed and dark haired, a deep chocolate brown that made the pallid skin tone stand out all the more.

A hand was brought in front of her face, a small blue sphere resting on its palm. The sphere flickered with white light until the woman grabbed it and cupped it into her own hand. "Hello?" she said calmly into the communication device.

"We're finally done. Now can someone explain what's happening?" A male voice resounded from the sphere, light and yet carrying veiled annoyance.

"How would _they_ know?" It was another female speaking from the sphere, her tone veiled with the weariness she could not hide. "They don't know _anything_ more about the fiends' movements than that snail over there."

"Yeah, but wouldn't it be smarter if we could find a better place to carry out this discussion than a battlefield?" another male suggested lowly. His voice also came from the blue device that was being held. "I'd rather not be maimed from behind by another pack of hungry fiends."

This sentence imposed silence once more only broken by the small sounds made by the pyreflies still innocently floating around.

"Send these…_things_," Yevon ordered sharply into the sphere. "We assemble here, at Alliance's Keep."

"Who died and made _you_ boss?" Roxi retorted, ignoring the background of argument coming from the other line of the conversation. He seemed to ignore both.

"Do not call them _things_," was the single comment of the standing woman who had held the device. She lightly tossed the sphere to him, raising the silver glaive on her right hand.

_That was the beginning. A call to arms if you will…or maybe not. I remember one of us saying that it was the small leak of a fountain before the dam broke and the water dragged us with its strength. But we never distrusted. As much as we quarrelled between ourselves, tempers as different as the powers bestowed to us, we never once expected one of us to turn from our task. We had been raised to it, the duty shackling more than our actions. It held our lives, our spirits. But the stone can only hold so much before it breaks. And when one stone breaks…the whole foundation falls with it. _

-----xXx-----

Noise filled Zanarkand's streets when three companions passed through the city's gates. They stopped in a contrasting silence, eyes carefully watching the busy streets where little to no attention was drawn to them.

The taller form of the group grunted as someone unknowingly almost slammed into him. "I knew it," he said in a low voice. "This is becoming _far_ too familiar for my tastes. Is it me, or are these people unbelievably ungrateful for our protection?"

Clothed in dark auburn like the colour of the dying flames, and at least over six-and-a-half feet tall, Xanthos stood out all the more even if he didn't tower over the two others. Brown hair barely touched his eyes matching the colour found in them, and he shook it out of the way of his eyesight as the girl standing next to him spoke.

She seemed to be only at the age of about 15 or 16, clearly the youngest in the group. "They _are_ ungrateful, those creeps." She folded her arms as her eyelids narrowed. "I say we kick their asses. Who's WITH me?"

The shorter young man beside her frowned greatly. He looked about eighteen. "…I say we kick _your _ass, Lydia." Daniel continued. "Sadly, there is no way we can harm these people. We are meant to protect them remember? With or without our elements. Don't tell me you forgot."

He had golden-coloured, shimmering hair that fell down his face in collective strands, reaching below his eyes in the front, and shorter strands that ceased above his neck at the rear of his head. His bright, sapphire eyes looked down at the communication device resting in his hand as his thick, dark green shirt ruffled about with the wind.

"Well, excuse me for giving a good suggestion," Lydia replied with a stare. "It's not like I give them frequently."

Xanthos nodded in complete agreement with this fact, just as a loud, disturbing shout came from the sphere in Daniel's hand.

"ARE YOU LISTENING?" the bony, black-haired man boomed from the opposite end of the conversation.

He fumbled with the inconvenient communication mechanism before holding it out in front of him. "Sorry about that, Yev," he faltered. "We were a bit distracted by...someone." He sent a sideways glance at the female companion standing beside him, who smiled.

"What I was saying," Yevon explained, "was that obviously the fiends aren't stopping, and there is no way we can hold them off anymore. They are only growing by the second, just like they've been doing for the past week. And what's more—"

"Get to the point, before we rust," snorted the dark blue-eyed woman on the other line, tapping her foot against the floor impatiently.

Yevon narrowed his eyes, grimacing. "I was just _getting_ to that, Roxi. We _are_ elemental summoners, are we not? Meaning, we are special summoners meant to protect this city, the city of Zanarkand. Roxi, Cassandra, Lydia, Daniel, Xanthos, and I are the only elemental summoners in all of Spira, and all of us have our own equal—but different—elements. We summon the elements of darkness, thunder, space, wind, and fire, respectively. That's why they call us the 'special summoners of the elements.' You all know that."

"Of course we do. But thanks for the recap. Although no one needed it, and I still don't see your point," Cassandra replied in a dry tone.

"But of course you don't. He doesn't have a point. But what else is new?" Lydia said, peering closely into the sphere. She gaped when she saw that the people at the other end of the conversation obviously didn't have anywhere near as many fiends as they'd had to deal with earlier.

"And why do you all look completely unscathed?" she interrogated. "We've been fighting off the fiends here for _days_, and look at _us!_"

"You've only been over there for an hour," she corrected, her voice in an even drier tone. Nevertheless, Cassandra squinted to see them in the small machina device. They were panting hard like a pack of wild fiends themselves, and had bruised themselves countless times while battling. A few of their garments had rips, although she couldn't tell until she looked even closer.

The other two elemental summoners standing beside her weren't paying attention. Yevon was waiting for them to silence themselves naturally, so that he could continue speaking, and Roxi was glaring at an empty wall, tangled in her own thoughts.

"Oh, that's _nothing_. You obviously haven't fought many fiends over there at _all_," she said sarcastically, once she had fully observed their state of exhaustion. She frowned at the sight of all three of the people from the other end of the sphere gaping at her.

"That was sarcasm," she explained. "And what are you guys doing?_ Inviting_ fiends to attack you? That's why you are encountering so many of them. You _should_ be running away."

The three pointed exasperatedly to a nearby sign that clearly stated "No Running Zone."

"We don't have much time." Yevon cleared his throat. "We only separated into two groups so that we could defeat all of the fiends. But it isn't working, as you can see. More and more fiends are beginning to come, and our powers alone can't stop them."

"So what's that supposed to mean?" Xanthos asked, ignoring a couple of bystanders who were staring at him like he'd just announced he was pregnant. He would've shooed them away if they hadn't mindlessly scurried away from him when he turned to look at them.

"It means there is only one way for us to destroy the rest of the fiends."

"What? Scare them away with your deadly breath?" Lydia questioned, wrinkling her nose and fanning away a peculiar odour coming from the communication sphere in Daniel's hand.

Yevon furrowed his brow. "What?"

Daniel pointed at the odour. "Err…what is this, a cartoon? Since when can you _see _odour?" he asked incredulously. He narrowed his eyes at the ugly smoke billowing out of the sphere and clouding it's insides. "Damn, the sphere's smoking. There must be something wrong with it."

"Then you'd better turn it off before something happens." Cassandra examined the sphere in Yevon's hands. "What the hell? This one's smoking too!"

"Get down here!" the black-haired man shouted quickly through the machina, before a spark shot out and the device flickered off.

"Oh dear," Lydia sighed.

_Yes, we were elemental summoners. I had my own element, as did everyone else. We were all so different in so many ways—from our looks to our clothes to our elements to our personalities—but we all shared that same fate. We were supposed to protect the city of Zanarkand from fiends. Nothing more to it. Our lives came after the city and its inhabitants. Sounds fun right?_

_The fiends had been the result of the Machina War we were battling against Bevelle. The innocent souls who had died in the war had such a strong bond with the world of Spira that they had refuse to go to the Farplane. And they didn't remain unsent, either. They became fiends. A war lasting for the last thirty-one years had not done few victims._

_And because of that damn war, we were fighting and protecting our city from them almost all the time. Every time another innocent person died in the war, there was one more fiend to fight—and then there got to be so many, we could hardly handle them. They just wouldn't stop coming. _

_Yevon was the only one who seemed to have a plan. So, after splitting up into two groups to try to kill off the different groups of fiends—and yes, we did use a communication device so that we could all talk as if we were all together—we rejoined them back at Alliance's Keep, which was the tower we all lived in. The tower that was made sorely for us. _

_I'm still surprised someone cared enough for us to build it at all._

The large, spacious, white room was completely empty except for the people standing quietly inside, creating short echoes with each body movement. The room connected to narrow stairs followed by the hallways which led to the six separate rooms, each with their own elemental decorations.

The personal room of the fire guardian was stuffed with sweltering heat that could make a machina dysfunction in minutes. Hence why Xanthos was late for everything. All alarm clocks ended up in a melted heap of plastic and none of the others had the slightest inclination to enter the furnace he called a room.

The wind summoner's room, on the other hand, was chilly and a fierce breeze flowed roughly throughout the inside of its borders, never-ending. Objects floated in the air, as the wind element had deprived the room of gravity. Daniel had been ranted at over and over again about how his things always ended up lowly floating in the hallway, making someone trip in the less appropriate moments.

The darkness element's room was black—no light, no colour, just total blackness and complete darkness to the point where nothing could be seen. The first time Lydia had unwillingly entered the room, she had left with a multitude of bruises and a very angered but smug Roxi. Eerie whispers of anonymous spirits echoed throughout the space making one wish not to wonder about their origin.

In the lightning summoner's room there was a constant surge of electricity on the floor. Every once in a while, the room would light up in a sudden flash of light, and a continuous roll of thunder echoed within its walls. Cassandra had lost count of the times she had been told off because of the short-circuits the sudden bouts of her element brought to the rest of the tower. The fact that she ignored them completely was a cause for some annoyance.

And in the space element's room there was no oxygen, gravity, or light—other than the occasional sight of a comet shooting by from wall to wall. Of course the day one of those small comets left the room to crash against an unsuspecting Xanthos was one to remember. Two days in the infirmary and a very interesting rendition as to why cosmic objects weren't something to keep in a room were the result of this rather ill-fated event.

No one knew or asked about what was in Yevon's room. A few curious members of the group wouldn't have minded sneaking in to look around, if only the last person—not one of the elementals, mind you—who had tried it hadn't ended up alone and confused the next morning……_in Kilika._

But in the room that connected all the separate rooms together, no element could be found. In this lone area, the walls were not coloured, darkness was not superior, the oxygen was not deprived, and nothing else from the rest of the tower seemed to affect it. In fact, each of the elements from other parts of the tower had all merged and cancelled each other out in this one room, therefore leaving it as a blank, white circle of nothingness.

The six elemental guardians united in the area, all spread out among themselves in different positions.

The woman with chocolate brown hair and dark eyes lifted her head from her shoulder. "Are we going to decide how to rid Zanarkand of the fiends or not?" Cassandra asked edgily "It's not like we have a lot of time to spare"

Yevon stood and paced around the circular room, eyeing each of the guardians warily. When each of them slightly scooted away from him, he began to speak. He spoke loudly and did not stutter or pause with any word—it was strange, as quite a few of the other elemental guardians found it a bit questionable that he spoke like he was reading from a manual.

"It's been a while since Zanarkand has been safe from attacking fiends and warriors of the Bevellian army," he began, shifting his glares from one guardian to the next. He spoke almost threateningly, as if to make sure they wouldn't dare to disagree to what he was saying. "The people of Zanarkand know about us and our duties, although they know little of who were are. They are beginning to think that we've forgotten about protecting the city with so many fiends showing up and all. And I don't know about any of you, but I—"

"Stop talking like that," Roxi bluntly interjected.

The man stared into her eyes chillingly. It might have made a few of the other guardians flinch or wrinkle their nose in disgust if he'd done the same to them, but Roxi only narrowed her eyes and looked right through him as if he was a glass window. She never did like him much, although she trusted him and treated him the same as everyone else.

He blinked, and his stare broke. The man seemed to be surprised. "What are you talking about?" He smiled and cocked his head to the side oddly.

"…You aren't a drone."

"As far as we know," Daniel added pensively.

"I'm sorry, I don't know what you're speaking of." The smile, which seemed a bit unreal in the first place, remained on his face while his head and neck became erect again. "But I can assure you that whatever you are talking about, it's not as important as it seems."

"Well, whatever it is, it _is _quite annoying," Lydia remarked.

"Is the angry arguing really necessary?" Xan queried sadly. "Can't we all just get along?"

Both Roxi and Yevon, as well as Daniel, Cassandra, and Lydia, sent him a sharp look, and the young man quickly looked away. The lightning element user rolled her eyes and clearly said, "Everyone. _Shut_ up and let him tell us his plan."

His lips curled into a nasty smile. "Thank you, Cassandra." He cleared his throat to make sure he had acquired everyone's attention, and before speaking once more, he cracked his knuckles in an unusual eerie manner. "As I was saying…"

As the man continued his speech, a woman in her early thirties standing outside looked hurriedly at the piece of crumbled paper in her hand and quickly opened it up to reread the address of the temple she was meant to visit. _Almost late, _was the only phrase that flowed through her mind as she recalled the soon-to-be-summoner who had told her to meet him at the place of worship.

The man who was meant to assemble with her had been learning how to become a well-trained summoner for the past three weeks, and today was the day he would fulfil his dream at last. She read the address mutely:

Lecciryh Temple

5 Stoned Drive

Zanarkand, Spira

"Lecciryh Temple…" The woman frowned. She slowly twirled around, looking desperately for a building that looked somewhat like the temple she had heard so much about. "I knew I should've visited this place before today," she mumbled to herself.

She swore under her breath and checked her watch. _Five minutes 'til eight. _Guardians were supposed to always be there for their summoners, were they not? And yet, here she was, not even ready to meet the person who she had promised to protect during their pilgrimage. "Once the summoner exits the Chamber of the Fayth," the priest had told her earlier, "you may congratulate him and begin the journey immediately."

In her frustration, she scowled and ripped the crumbled paper into shreds. The woman, annoyed, began hastily walking from street to street, looking for a building that resembled a temple.

Countless people pivoted their heads in her direction as she power-walked by them, her long, black hair lifting upwards with the wind. She checked each street in the northern area of the city, and was about to backtrack and try again when she caught sight of an elevated structure with a triangular, angled rooftop towering over her.

A hopeful smile escaped her lips. "Maybe that's it," she mumbled calmly to herself, peeping inside.

She saw a circular white room with almost half a dozen people sprawled out on the floor and a tall, very skinny man soaring above them, dictating unheard words. She squinted but saw no more than she had made out a moment ago. Desperately, the woman creaked open the door, the unlocked hinges making a soft sound that seemed like a screech to her frazzled nerves.

She doubted it was the right temple, but didn't want to leave unless she was one hundred percent positive that it was not the building she was looking for. After a while of thinking it out, she decided it couldn't hurt if she waited until the six people left the room before doing anything. This way, she thought, she could silently enter the room and pretend that she'd been there waiting for her summoner to come out all along.

She nodded in approval of her own plan, which seemed rather odd to a few people walking the streets nearby. Seeing a woman—with now completely dishevelled, long hair—spy on a group of people inside a temple and nod to herself all at once was an odd sight for everyday Zanarkandians.

She peeped through the open door, also carefully positioning her ears close enough to the inside of the temple as she could without being noticed by any of the six strangers lounging about in the room. She wanted to make sure she could tell when they were about to leave, so that she could quickly pretend like she _wasn't_ spying on them by the time they exited. Luckily for her, she had very keen eyesight, and the room echoed with each sound that was made, making it very easy for her to observe.

"So, what are we going to do about this?" a blonde, blue-eyed boy was asking.

The man standing nodded. "There's only one thing _to _do with the fiends. Nothing else will work—_nothing. _And it is a very risky plan, so you all must trust me with this. I can not stress how important it is to—"

"Just tell us what theplan is," a dark woman interrupted, "before my sword accidentally meets your flesh." She gripped a large, black attacking weapon in her right hand that seemed to weigh more than herself. Still, she held it with ease, as if it was as light as a feather.

"I agree," the youngest-looking person in the group declared, suddenly standing up. "I have a _life_, you know."

"You mean _we_ have lives, Lydia," the blonde corrected, gesturing to the people who were not standing.

"Stupid, pointless lives, but lives nonetheless," said the tallest of the group gloomily.

The girl named Lydia opened her mouth to respond to the blonde boy's comment, but was interrupted before she could make a sound.

The man standing made a loud throat-clearing noise to signal the others to silence themselves. Then he slowly turned to the girl who was also standing. "Sit _down_, Lydia," he commanded harshly. "Now, here's my plan. There is a thick book of enchantments that I've owned for _years_. It could come in handy to us. Just for you to get an idea of what kind of enchantments it has, I'll list a few that I remember. I think…spells that strengthen magic power, spells that weaken magic power, and spells that turn spies into ducks. Quite useful, really."

The woman peering in on them jolted.

"In any matter, I'm sure I could find a spell that would be of tremendous help to us." He pulled out an oversized black book with a golden border and quickly flipped through the pages until he found the one he'd been looking for. "Ah. _Here_ we are…" he said darkly.

"This spell won't require a stacked pile of ingredients, will it?" asked a young lady with brown hair and grey attire.

The man nodded. "Yes, actually, it will. But don't worry about that right now." He squinted to see the tiny print in the book he was holding. "Yes, this is the spell. 'How To Combine the Six Elements of Darkness, Wind, Lightning, Fire, Space, and—' " He stopped.

"And what?"

His eyes darted around the room. "Not important," he said unpersuasively. "Not at all." He hurriedly began reading the ingredients out loud, not allowing anyone enough time to question him.

"We need two three-leafed plants, a feather, a book on the six spirits and elements of the planet, which we already have, a broom, aaaaaaaaaand… a lot more things."

"How many ingredients ARE there?" Lydia questioned, giving him an odd look, like he'd lost his mind.

The woman standing outside was dazed; she wondered what, exactly, was going on. _Obviously, these people have some kind of duty to do,_ she concluded. She continued listening, her interest growing more and more as the unusual conversation progressed.

The standing man peered into the book, holding it very close to his face. Then, he said calmly, as if it they had all of the time in the world to collect these things, "Too many to count."

His words triggered complete silence in the room for a few moments, where the only noise that could be heard was the sound of Roxi standing up. She walked toward Yevon with a fixed stare implanted on her face before she said anything.

"I hope you know… I am _not_ …collecting _anything _…for this worthless piece of trash … that you call a 'spell.' "

"It won't take long," Yevon said calmly. The woman frowned and took a spot leaning against the wall. "Now then. What are you waiting for? Get the ingredients!"

"What? We're getting them _now, _while you just stand and watch?" Xan asked disapprovingly.

"Yes, we don't have any time to wait. And while you five do that, I'll be in here, preparing the room for the enchantment."

After reading out the full list ingredients to the group—during which Lydia found it very hard not to fall asleep—the man slammed the book closed and dropped it on the floor by his feet.

"Now, nothing can go wrong, or there will be terrible consequences for all of us."

He had a very dour, unsmiling face when these words escaped his lips.

The woman outside quickly scrambled to the nearby street, blending in with the rest of the bystanders and the few joggers running along the sidewalks just in time—because five certain elemental summoners had just exited the temple, and she imagined it would have been a terrible sight for them to run into her if she was still standing there, spying on them as they walked out. She nervously greeted an elderly man rolling by on a wheelchair as if everything were normal. Still, from where she stood, she could hear the people from the temple talking as they made their way by her:

Xanthos shook his head. "Talk about problems. It is me, or is he constantly acting like he's the boss of the group?" He let out a long sigh. "I_ can't_ be the only one who noticed it."

Daniel nodded. "I've heard of leaders before, but this is ridiculous." He grunted, shaking the long hair out of his face, and continued. "Although, if I recall, the last time anyone else came up with an idea to protect the city better, we ended up almost dead, in the centre of a circle of livid fiends?"

The entire group slowly turned to face Lydia, who rolled her eyes. "That was _not_ my fault."

"But still," said Cassandra, referring to the comment Xanthos had stated earlier, "it's a good point. About Yevon, I mean."

She suddenly remembered something her parents had told her when she was still very young. "A while ago, my parents used to I tell me that 'even the smallest feather can cause an avalanche the second it lands on the mountain.' Maybe this is what they meant..." She thought for a moment, then shook her head. "But I doubt it. He's just getting us to kill off the fiends faster."

As she continued walking, however, the thought about the avalanche would not leave her mind—it lingered, repeating itself over and over again. The others stared at her curiously.

" 'Even the smallest feather can cause an avalanche the second it lands on the mountain…' " she repeated quietly, mostly to herself.

She said it once more, and the 18-year-old beside her frowned. "I would hate to think about what would happen to that feather," he mumbled.

The group looked silently at each other for a moment, and then Cassandra shook the thoughts out of her head. "But never mind about that. We've gotta get those ingredients for the spell."

"Right, I say we split up," Lydia recommended, nodding. She pointed to the two different directions that the street divided into. "Half of us go right, half go left. And the one left over, um…goes left."

After deciding who would go which way, the group split up once more into two separate teams and walked off to collect the needed supplies.

The woman who had been talking to the elderly man in the wheelchair suddenly discontinued listening to his "rambled greetings," as she had not-so-kindly thought of it, and peeped around her in all directions. The group had left.

Saying a last "Nice to meet you!" to the man, she quickly snuck over to the temple to hear if anyone else was inside. She didn't think anyone was, after listening to the lone sound of emptiness that seeped through the crack in the door. She quickly tore into the temple, hoping the black-haired man from before had left with the others.

Her heart thumped painfully against her chest. She entered, and to her relief, he was nowhere to be seen when she walked inside. The woman looked around. A bit too plain for the temple she was looking for, wasn't it? She wanted to call out to someone, but stopped herself when she realized there still might be another person lingering about in other parts of the tower.

Slowly walking around, the 31-year-old woman was careful not to make any noises that could be heard from higher floors of the building. The place was so empty that short echoes were formed with her footsteps, even when she tip-toed—and she could only hope the sound would not be heard by anyone.

Her eyes caught a glimpse of a staircase leading to upper levels in the corner, and a hardly noticeable smile made its way across her face. Her heart began its pounding once more, and she got the odd feeling that someone was going to burst into the door and catch her spying. No one did.

Coming closer to the staircase, she stopped and looked curiously at a shelf hidden just in front of it. She hadn't seen it before—but it stared at her as though beckoning her closer to it. _Strange. _As she drew nearer, she realized the shelf was completely new, and had been purposely painted white to blend in with the walls and floor of the room. The single book on the shelf was also white-coloured, but there was also a hint of gold that glinted when she touched it and held it up to her face. It looked almost as if a god from the heavens had dropped it off or something. She furrowed her eyebrows as she slowly opened the book.

It had no title. It had no dedication page. It had no title page. It had—nothing, other than a good thirty pages of tiny print that she could hardly read until she held it three inches from her eyes. Her curiosity had gotten the better of her. She swallowed and silently read:

**DISCLAIMER**

**I, THE AUTHOR OF THIS PRINTED BOOK, AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DEATHS OR SUICIDES THAT HAVE BEEN THE CONSEQUENTIAL RESULT OF THE PRINTING AND/OR MAKING OF THIS BOOK.**

**I, J. Grohms, have typed the following pages of this book in hopes of allowing someone—anyone—to uncover the true future of Spira, not only for their suspicions and curiosity, but for the hope of all living mankind—both those who are alive on this date, on September 3, 1304, and those who have the fate and destiny to be birthed thousands of years in the future. **

**Those who find this book useful, and those who plan to act with its words still fresh in their minds, have the choice of confronting what they fear bravely, or eventually allowing the harsh will of fate to kill them and those they love. Keep this information in mind if you continue. Read on.**

The woman's eyes were widened to the size of golf balls at the time when she reached this page of the book. She wasn't sure exactly what it was referring to, and a part of her told her to quickly place it down and leave the temple immediately—but her hands wouldn't allow her to. She attempted in vain to shut the book, but her hands only shivered, until she gave up and decided she would flip the page. She exhaled loudly.

So far, it sounded like the book was a fake—something meant to scare its readers. But as she swallowed hard and blinked multiple times, she got the feeling that it was something to take seriously. She tensed.

The page turned, and she hadn't even done so much as moved.

The woman swallowed once more. She read on.

**After spending one of my sleepless nights watching over a certain child, I've learned many a distasteful fact of the future. The eyes of children say a lot to men of my age—old, weary enchanters like me, who have spent years studying the art of determining the future of one's life have no trouble looking into a child's large, truthful eyes and telling him that he will grow up to be a spectacular person.**

**But this one child—unlike no other—had a different set of eyes. Cold, blue, like the malicious colour of the thrashing ocean that thrusts ships from one spot to another recklessly throughout the nights. Looking into these cold eyes, I knew it was true—**

**Spira was destined to be destroyed. Starting at the year 2925, a series of consecutive events will lead to the ultimate eradication of our planet.**

**In these last years of my life, I have forced myself to write this book day and night, until it has been thoroughly completed, not allowing myself to sleep a wink—not until this book has been published, and my own personal fate has been fulfilled. This is why I've written this; as the last hope for mankind to prevail, a last hope for Spira to live on. **

**You, the reader, have picked up this book, and you, the reader, have read my truthful words. Choose to believe them, or choose to question them, but be it as it may—if no one reads my words, if no believes what I have to say—**

**Spira is damned.**

She swallowed once more. She was not going to place the book down. Not now. The only thing she wondered was what—exactly—this man was talking about, and who—exactly—the child was that he'd been babysitting that night. What did he see?

Something was going on—and she intended to find out what it was.

The woman, determined, fiercely glued her eyes to the next page and read.

-----xXx-----

Thud.

After a while of reading, she had a terribly difficult time trying to tear apart from the book—she supposed the enchanter must have placed some sort of spell on it, but she had no time to think. Someone was coming.

Thud.

She acted quickly, gripping the book in her hands so tightly, refusing to lose it or let go, that her hands had gone completely white. She didn't care.

_Thud._

Her eyes darted around the room, searching desperately for a place to hide.

THUD.

She dove behind the shelf, attempting to not make a sound—

_THUD._

She hardly breathed.

One last _Thud _could be heard from behind the shelf as Yevon himself re-entered the room from the staircase. He slowly looked around in all directions around the room, making sure no one was inside. He saw and heard nothing.

From behind the shelf, she clutched at her heart, willing it to stop smashing against her chest so violently.

Then, suddenly, a pounding knock sounded, as someone rapped hard on the other side of the door and entered.

Out of the corner of the woman's eye, she glimpsed a tall lady, somewhere in her twenties, with long, white hair approaching.

The man looked up at the entering person as the white-haired lady walked smartly inside. "Heh. Yunalesca. It's about time you showed up," he said. "I just _had_ to share my excitement about this with _someone_," he said lowly, with a smirk.

"How is everything coming along?" She studied the book that had been previously dropped on the floor, and she gave the man a questioning look. "I suppose you've used the book of enchantments I gave you years ago?"

The tall, sick-looking man nodded. "Of course I have. What did you think? I'd _forget _the plans we made so long ago? The book is needed." He looked down at the black object, and a moment later, it was in his hand. He hadn't bent down to pick it up. "And I can't say how grateful I am for it, either."

"I see you've already learned a few tricks." Yunalesca smirked sophisticatedly. "How _is _everyone these days?"

Yevon walked around the room, tucking the book away, and he faced a white wall when he responded. "You mean the other elemental summoners? Hmph. They're fine."

The woman hiding blinked. She was beginning to understand it now. This group of people—she was stupid not to see it before. _They _were the people who she'd heard so much about but, like everyone else in the town, had never met or seen"_They're the protective elements!_"she inaudibly breathed to herself.

So _that _was what they were trying to do. Those six people—they were trying to find a way to destroy all of the Zanarkandian fiends! It was all beginning to come together now. And to think, just a few days ago, she, like many other citizens of the city, had thought they had stopped doing their job—judging from all of the fiends who had been emerging lately.

There was a long silence in the room. Yunalesca had a sharp look on her face. "You mean you haven't—"

"Not yet," he interjected darkly, "but I sent them off to find the ingredients for the spell. And it's working out perfectly."

Yunalesca grinned wickedly.

He continued, a foul smirk emerging on his features. "They have the wrong spell ingredients," he spat disgustingly. "Those fools think they're actually out looking for the ingredients to make out elemental powers stronger—_hah!_—when they are really looking for the ingredients that will destroy them, leaving this city defenceless."

"And Sin?" Yunalesca questioned immorally.

"They have no clue that I created him myself, along with half of the fiends here."

The hidden woman behind the shelf couldn't help herself. She gasped noticeably and walked out where she would be seen. "_WHAT?_"

Both heads snapped in her direction, smiles fading, and angry, merciless looks replacing them. Yevon looked furious. "Who…the HELL are you?" he boomed, his anger rising with every passing millisecond, "and _what_ are you doing in here?"

The woman stood her ground. "Brenna Loxington," she stated firmly—and also stupidly, since she unknowingly had _no_ protection from these two very unpleasant people. Still, the grasp she held on the book in her hands tightened, like she had all of the courage she needed to defeat them. "And what you're doing is wrong."

"Oh, it is it?" the woman with the long, white hair queried, fuming. "And how long have you been in here, listening?" Her stare was sharp.

"Long enough. And I'm putting a stop to this before it gets out of hand." She held up the book that she had been reading previously as a threat. "You didn't think I knew about this," she said, "did you?"

Yevon looked taken aback for a moment, his eyes widening. "Wha...where...?" He straightened himself up. "I don't know what you've been doing here, spying on us. And I don't even know who you are, but this little conversation you're having with us right now—"

"Is your _last_," Yunalesca finished for him.

She reached out to grab her, but Brenna was too quick. She darted out to the exit, past both her and Yevon, who shot toward her. Yevon grabbed her arm.

"Let GO!" She quickly sank her teeth into the flesh of his hand, tore away from his loosening grasp, and flew out of the temple, still holding the book in her hands and not daring to turn back to look.

She had to go, she had to tell the elemental summoners, and she had to do it fast. Yevon had already cast a powerful cure magic on himself and was tearing out of the room to catch her.

Sprinting like mad, she snapped her head around just in time to see Yevon stop dead in his tracks and suddenly raise his arms to the skies. She fled as fast as her legs would carry her, picking up speed after a while.

Brenna had no idea what Yevon was doing, but she knew it couldn't be good. There was no way she would let her city be destroyed. She was going to find the elements, she just _had_ to. And then she would show them the book she had read, and—

Her thoughts ended and she zoomed past bystanders like a fierce, whipping wind, and had to shove many of them out of her way, not daring to lose any speed.

She was getting so far away from him that he seemed the size of an action figure, holding his hands up to the skies in the distance. The only thing she could make out was a white glow coming from his eyes, and his body suddenly becoming bordered in a very distinct, bright blaze, and then—

_Swoosh!—_

Her body froze, and a second later, she knew no more.

-----xXx-----

"So, tell me again, what exactly are we doing out here?"

Cassandra looked at Lydia and frowned. "We've gone over this a million times. We have to have a lot of room for the spell to work. Right?"

Yevon nodded speechlessly from his side of the circle.

"Yes, but it is really necessary for us to be so far away from the rest of the city?" Lydia asked, pointing to the buildings that suddenly seemed much more distant than a few moments ago. Not a soul was anywhere nearby other than the six of them.

The group was standing in an outstretched circle, bordering a large heap of items sprawled out on the ground before them. After over three hours of searching, the pile now consisted of a dictionary, six different coloured bird feathers, a pebble, a rare chocobo's tail, six small samples of each of the different elementals, a pile of wooden sticks, a DNA sample of each of the elemental summoners, the fur of one of the fiends, thirteen leaves, seven teeth, thirty-four eyelashes, a marble, a single tear, three thousand six hundred and eleven hairs (reluctantly, Cassandra and Daniel were forced to run around Northern Zanarkand, shaving off the hair of countless wandering citizens, which resulted in several vigorous chases around the city), seventeen popped balloons, a worn pair of boxers, two toenail clippings, a shoe, fourteen crumbled pieces of paper, four gil, five hundred fifty-seven million—

"Are you sure these are enough ingredients?" Cassandra mordantly questioned after narrowing her eyes at the mountain of piled trash in the centre of the circle.

"Yeah, I would rather not have collected those hairs," Daniel agreed, staring at the man across from him who still held the black, golden-bordered book in his hands.

He thumbed through the pages in the book. After reading something inside, he carelessly shut it and tucked it away safely somewhere where the others could not see. He nodded sharply. "All the ingredients were necessary, no doubt about that."

No one responded. In their minds, they each did have their own "doubt about that." Still, they kept their mouths shut, refusing to launch any unnecessary comments. Yevon smiled.

"Well, looks like we're all ready, then. Just one more thing left to do… One more ingredient…" He quickly opened the book once more to the page. However, he didn't say anything for a while.

"_Another_ ingredient?" Roxi snapped disapprovingly. "I'm losing patience."

He looked up from the book dramatically. "Yes. A drop of blood from each of your bodies."

Unwilling stares were exchanged, but once again, no one said a thing. They all seemed to be thinking the same thing: _Why didn't he tell them about this before? _There weren't supposed to be any secrets within the group—except, perhaps, the dark ones. But this? No, the man should've made it clear earlier.

Lydia wondered why he hadn't. She didn't speak of this, however, but instead asked another question lingering in her mind. "But…what?" she asked. "From _our_ bodies? What about you?"

Yevon faltered. "What…? Me?" He shook his head and soon regained his usual, shady expression. "The book clearly states that it only needs _five _blood samples. Meaning, the five of you."

"Well, if you say so…" Xan said, shrugging his broad shoulders. "It doesn't make a difference anyway—as long as the city is safe."

But Daniel didn't look too sure. Something sounded funny to him—and it wasn't quite the 'haha' funny, either. It was more of the _"Hmmm..." _funny. "Uhhhhhhhh…are you sure?" he asked doubtfully.

Yevon pointed furiously to the book and held it up high for them all to see. "What, you think I'm _lying? _After all _this?" _His eyes widened angrily. "I can't BELIEVE you."

"Well, it's not like we can actually _read _that tiny print from here," Cassandra pointed out, her usually large amount of patience starting to deteriorate rapidly. "And I doubt we have the _time _to read it, anyway. We have to hurry before the fiends come again."

Yevon nodded. "Well—what are you waiting for?—the fate of Zanarkand is in our hands." He pointed downwards.

They looked at the ground, where, interestingly enough, there were suddenly five small but sharp knives lying patiently to be put to use. "…Where the hell did these come from?" Xanthos asked, swooping down to pick one up.

Yevon pointed to the book of spells. "This thing really does come in handy."

It was an odd feeling, using knives to cut yourself—but if it was for their city, it would have to be done. Ten seconds later, every guardian but Yevon had carefully cut a slight slit on their arm—except for Roxi, who ended up slicing an extremely large gash on her arm, much too used to causing such damage to fiends, as well as other beings. Still, the woman was unaffected, and refused harshly when Yevon suggested a cure spell. Five drops of dark red liquid fell down onto the pile of ingredients, and Yevon smiled satisfyingly.

"Alright, and now—the last thing."

Roxi exhaled sharply. "I _thought _you said _that _was the last thing," she said edgily.

"Seriously," said Lydia, "is this a joke?"

The more mysterious woman did not give anyone else a chance to answer. "It better not be." She gave the leading man a threatening look, and then glanced down at the large sword by her side, and smirked. "Or some very unfortunate things may occur down in this lone area, where no one but us is around." She laid a hand on the weapon, but did not pull it out of its sheath.

"I would hope not…" Xan agreed, shaking his head. "We don't need any more deaths."

"Just one more thing," Yevon repeated, ignoring these remarks, "and then the spell is done." He read a few sentences from the book, and then said, "If we want the spell to be preformed, we have to first recite the chant together."

"The chant?" Lydia asked curiously.

He nodded. " Repeat this: 'Use these things we've collected well, so that our strong wishes may become this spell.' "

The others exchanged looks, the same though in their minds "_Is he serious_?" before, slowly, repeating in unison:

"Use these things we've collected well…so that our strong wishes…may become this spell…?"

Almost immediately after these words left their mouths, the objects in the centre of the circle began to create smoke, just like the sphere earlier. Only, this smoke rose higher and higher into the sky until it reached the clouds, and the moment it did, the items were engulfed in a vast inferno. Two seconds later, however, the fire ceased and nothing was left but a small area of burnt grass.

"…What just happened?" asked a confused Lydia, after a while.

Daniel nodded with a faint smile. "The spell…it's working."

The guardians felt a surge of power flow through their bodies as the enchantment finally began. Roxi could feel a commanding strength in her grow and grow to a larger point. Her soul felt warm, her heart beating faster than ever before, until it began vibrating. Her blood rushed through her veins, her brain stinging with new thoughts, new energy. The others were feeling it too—the elements were becoming more and more powerful with every passing second. Nothing would be able to stop them from protecting _anything_ now—nothing! New air filled her lungs as she took in a breath of oxygen. She felt invincible. Nothing was better than this. For the first time in a long time, her spirits lifted and she felt free, like she could do anything she wanted.

And then it all went away.

A piercing noise echoed through the atmosphere, which all of the sudden was almost too heavy for her to continue standing. The sky went very red, very dark, very shady, and suddenly, the Sun seemed to be dimming. She shut her eyes, struggling to keep from falling to the ground.

The noise echoing through her ears would not cease; it only grew louder and louder, until the five of them were screaming in searing pain. A sudden anger sprang up from her.

Her eyes snapped open. _"YEVON!_ _WHAT DID YOU DO!"_

The cold man grinned maliciously, unaffected by whatever was happening to the others. "What?" he said loudly. "Did you think I was actually going to let you and the rest of the guardians _protect _Zanarkand? HAH! _Why would I give a shit about this damn city?"_

"What are you _talking about!_" Daniel shouted, slapping his hands over his ears to vainly try to drown out the screaming noise. "_We've been fighting off the fiends here this whole time!_ _And _YOU _were with us, you bastard! What, you FIND this FUNNY?"_

"Of course not. Do you see me laughing?" the man responded calmly, his face serious. "You actually thought I cared about you and your stupid city. You must really be surprised." He laughed.

"I'LL KILL YOU!" Cassandra screamed. "All this time—this WHOLE _damn time_! You were AGAINST us?" She suddenly shouted in pain, and dark purple clouds covered the sky in answer to her cry, giving birth to a sea of booming lightning strikes.

Xanthos was on his knees, covering his ears desperately, muttering unknown words to himself. In less than a second, there was a circle of blazing fire bordering Yevon. Both the flames and the guardians surrounded him. The fire elemental stood up uneasily and glared speechlessly at the man in front of him. Very rarely did he get so angry. _"Bastard! Were you plotting against us all along?"_

"Fools." Yevon was still laughing. "You think you can do anything? The spell has already been made. Hah! And _you _thought I was giving you the spell ingredients to make the elements stronger! When in reality, you were out fetching me the supplies I needed to create a spell that will confine you all in a special dungeon that I made JUST for you. A dungeon far away from any place you know. I'm sure you will enjoy it _immensely_"

A sudden lightning strike of Cassandra's hit very close to the insane man.

"_Oh! So you wanted us out of the way, so you could take control of Zanarkand, did you?" _Lydia screeched angrily. "I can't believe you!"

Daniel whipped out a long, emerald green spear seemingly from nowhere. He would've lunged forward, but thought better of it. "Why would you DO this? The fiends! They'll destroy you!"

Yevon's laugh only grew louder as he avoided another lightning strike. "And that's the best part: you really believed me when I told you that your elemental magic wasn't enough to kill off the fiends." He shook his head in pity. "When it was really _me _who created over half of the fiends in the first place!"

"WHAT THE _HELL_ ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT!" Roxi thundered from the other side of the flames, to Yevon. "_YOU _CREATED THEM? _Oh, you're in for it._" She raised her sword very high into the air, and, like Daniel, would have flung herself at him if the flames weren't in the way.

Yet Xanthos didn't care. He only made them larger, and slowly but surely, they were closing in on Yevon.

"Of course I did—with my elemental power, of course. What, you never wondered what it was?" He shook his head again. "Hmph. I bet you're _still_ wondering, even after such a big hint," he cackled.

Roxi had lost her temper—she'd _more _than lost her temper. Her temper was long gone, never to be found again for a long, long time. Her eyes went very, very dark, and as they did so, a round orb of surging darkness came about from above her head. She flung out her hand, her fingers outstretched, and the orb went shooting directly at Yevon.

A huge mass of smoke thickened the atmosphere, and little by little, a looming figure became more and more visible. Yevon, although badly injured in various places, still stood, leaning on one leg, puffing like a fiend. He had partially blocked the attack, but as it was too powerful, there was nothing he could do to stop it before it reached him.

"Urgh… You…you think _that_ can do anything to help you? NOTHING is going to help. Your time is up." He did not sound in the best shape, but Yevon was still alive and well. A third lightning strike could be heard as it surged down on the man, creating yet another field of thickening dust that shielded his body from view.

The piercing noise still echoed in the air.

"YEVON!" Daniel had had enough. From the purple skies came a loud, threatening gust of wind that fell down to the grounds, breaking through the grass and dirt underneath. It sharpened, and sure enough, there was a very powerful tornado in Zanarkand City. Yevon's eyes widened.

The wind storm zigzagged across the field until it came in very close contact with the man, sputtering not only rock and dust at the man, but also very tall trees and other large plants from the human-less area. After a while, the tornado zoomed in even closer to him, but once more, Yevon could not be seen through the thick dust that shielded him from view.

And then came a scream.

While this storm had been forming, Lydia's own little storm was being planned—although it was not at all little, and it could hardly be called a storm. All six elementals realized this when, from the thick clouds in the sky, came a massive, hurling object of rock and ice. It happened so fast that nobody saw it coming, as it thrust itself in the direction of the protruding dust surrounding Yevon.

As it made impact with the Earth, a loud, indescribable noise occurred, forcing out screams from people all the way in the city. The Earth vibrated, began to shake, and then—it seemed as if the ground were splitting into multiple parts, as the fire encircling Yevon fully closed on his body. Or at least it seemed that way…

Until a speedy, zooming object the size of him burst into the city.

But it had been too late anyway. The five elementals began to feel their energy declining quickly, and before any of them could say a thing, everything went black, and their powers had gone dormant.

Zanarkand looked like Zanarkand no more.

-----xXx-----

Days turned into weeks into months, before the summoners had any kind of contact from the outside world. Roxi was pacing around the room that had confined her. She had tried everything. She physically and verbally attacked the concrete slabs that surrounded her, but nothing got results.

"Roxi, we can feel your unease… will you stop freakin' pacing," Daniel shook his blond locks out of his eyes. "We aren't getting out anytime soon."

"That stupid bastard… wait till I get my hands on him, I swear… I'll kill him," she growled, clenching her fists at her side.

They silenced their voices when they felt another presence. It was not a warm presence; it was cold and unwelcoming. "You grow silent from my presence, do you have that much reverence for me?" a serene feminine voice cooed from the outer region of the chambers that sealed the elementals.

"Not even close," Cassandra voiced from her chamber.

The woman brushed her long white hair over her shoulders before crossing her arms. "Regardless, how is everything?" She smirked to herself before continuing. "I mean, what do you do to pass the free time you all have now?"

"Who exactly are you?" Xanthos irritably asked.

"Oh, how rude of me. I am Yunalesca, highest ranking person in Bevelle," she said with a grin across her features.

"_Bevelle_?" Lydia spoke with disgust. "Why would a person from Bevelle come to see us?"

"It wasn't a long journey actually…" the woman said with a smirk. "Maybe fifteen minutes…"

"What are you talking about?" Cassandra questioned as she got to her feet. Her mind had come to a conclusion on its own, but she didn't want to get ahead of herself, so she waited for the said Yunalesca to answer.

"You don't get it? Are you all really that dense?" she said as she laughed heartily to herself. "Well, I must say this situation must be the most ironic one I've ever come across. The place you fought so hard to protect your beloved home of Zanarkand from is the place that will be your place of residence for the rest of eternity."

"We're in _Bevelle?_" Daniel questioned, anger beginning to course through him. "Why in the name of Thanthos are we in Bevelle?"

"He's mocking us… everything we stood for. He placed us in Bevelle to add further shame to us," Cassandra explained quietly.

The outsider smirked to herself. Her job was done. She had furthered their misery. "Isn't it ironic?" she asked in a mocking tone.

Roxi gritted her teeth as she listened to the girl mock them from the outside. "Shut up and be gone. You aren't exactly a welcomed person here if that hadn't been gathered."

"Fine." She pursed her lips, not enthralled by the tone the dark elemental took with her. "I'll leave you to your own misery." Without another word she turned her back from the compartment and walked up the stairs, exiting the chamber. And those words were the last ones the summoners heard from anyone on the outside world.

* * *

Author's Note- Not too long, right? Be sure to leave a review, or bad things will happen to the Earth. And I mean..._bad things. _

Auron's Fan: Ciao  
Shadray: Shalom  
Sephirothxx: Take Care  
Reyavie: See ya!  
Da KeR MySteRr: Tooodles!


	2. Blowing Out the Candles

A/N: We're back with another rendition of Broken Alliance. Don't worry, this chapter is not as long as the last chapter. It's a decent length, it was going to be longer, but we decided that… we wouldn't torture all you poor kiddies out there! Ok, well thank you all who reviewed… and, ok not going into those who read and didn't review –scowls at hit counter- ANYWAY! ENJOY!

Disclaimer:

Muse: We're here to say that the authors of this fic- Don't own anything…  
Ghost: With the exception of the OCs  
Darian: Though they have this sick idea that they own us…  
Rianna: Why do we actually help them write, its not like they give up credit…  
Muse: This is true… we should –grins wickedly- Rebel!  
Crazed Unit: shit…  
Bellona: -roars-  
Da KeR MySteRr: Quick… Andy, you stay here while we go get help! –runs like hell-  
Auron's Fan, Reyavie, and Shadray: -follow quickly-  
Sephirothxx: Ok… wait… what!  
All the Muses: Get him!  
Sephirothxx: Meep! –runs- read and Review… PLEASE!

-----xXx-----

Blowing Out the Candles

_And that was how we were betrayed by one of our own. Our screams, our curses, our pacing, all that eventually faded. No one could hear our calls or our pleas for help. Our hope of ever escaping that prison died soon enough. And I guess, in a sense, a part of ourselves died as well._

_We all changed that day in a way that was beyond irreparable. That could not be denied as much as we tried. One thing remained untouched though. That thing? The hatred, betrayal, hurt. The animosity towards that man that we had considered a friend, a companion… a brother; it never dwindled with time and a thousand years later those feelings were still present and aching, just as strong as in that fateful day._

_Though, in a personal outlook, the betrayal was bad, it was not the worst part of the whole ordeal. The fact that we were entrapped for all eternity was more than any of us could stomach. A thousand years with nothing more to do than dwell on the fact that we had foolishly, just blindly, followed a man, never once second-guessing his words. A thousand years to mull over the signs that had been in front of our faces the entire time._

_The gift of life was so abruptly snatched away from us, as the gift of death was also so harshly stripped from our hands. We didn't even have the satisfaction of rest, even if it wasn't a planned one, after this betrayal. We were to stay in that chamber, with nothing but each other's thoughts and words for company. _

-----xXx-----

"Happy Anniversary…" Lydia spoke to the others mentally.

Though those words are normally encased with joy and excitement that, however, was not the case this time. Her words were laced with bitter resentment for these words were meant to mark the thousand-year anniversary of their entrapment

Over the years, they came to realize they actually had a way to communicate between themselves. The ability to hear each other's mental thoughts proved to be the only thing that kept them sane, or as close to sanity as their situation would permit.

"Gee, _thanks_, Lydia…" Roxi remarked with a sarcastic undertone. "How bout you remind us again in another hour, so we can continue to soak in self pity and loathing."

The younger girl quieted down, deterred by the snide remarks of Roxi. She pursed her lips as she crossed her arms and made a face at the wall.

"Must you be so condescending?" Xanthos questioned mentally from his own chamber. "Is it really necessary to belittle us every time you open your mouth?" The taller man was currently standing, glancing up at the ceiling of his confines. The concrete slabs that prevented his exit. He sighed heavily before adding, "You aren't the only one perturbed by this."

"Were those some big words of wisdom from Big Xan?" Cassandra said in a light manner, "So time does change people after all." She smirked to herself before continuing, "Did father time just skip over you, my dear Roxi?"

Sensing the anger coming from Roxi, Daniel quickly cut in. "I've been doing a lot of thinking…"

"Guess there's a first time for everything," Lydia threw in before he could continue.

"Very funny," he said with a roll of his eyes. "However, as I was saying, I have an idea…"

-----xXx-----

_For the first time in over nine hundred years we had a plan. It was risky, and it was a long reach, but we had nothing to lose at that point. I'm not going to say that the plan was completely agreed upon, because that wouldn't be true. Actually, there was almost complete dissent for it._

_Through a serious incantation done by three of us, the other two were going back to our Zanarkand. The three doing the incantation were to concentrate all their energy on the two going back to allow them, not only the ability to travel in time, but to go around the spell that denied us freedom. While the two were there, they were to find someone trustworthy and bring them to the current time period. _

_Yevon had been cautious. Almost too cautious. The spell wouldn't let us leave or contact anyone outside of those walls… but it hadn't been meant to stop us from contacting other _era_. And considering we were Zanarkandians where should we search for help other that there?_

_It was a dangerous, and unheard of, concept. We were bringing someone from a different time period into the present, we could have messed up a lot of things, but we weren't really concerned with that. We had fought so hard to protect the people of Zanarkand, the people who didn't even give us a second glance, we had been betrayed by someone we considered a brother, and now… we're looking out for ourselves._

-----xXx-----

"That is the _stupidest_ idea I've ever heard, Daniel," Lydia scoffed after fully listening to the blond boy.

"A lot of things can go wrong," Cassandra added in. She paused for a moment, contemplating the pros and cons of the situation before she added, "It's not going to be easy."

"Who are we going to bring back? We can't trust anyone enough to actually do it," Xanthos threw in, adding another blow to the idea. "Besides, who is going to go… it's dangerous."

Daniel slumped back to the ground, leaning his head against the wall of his confines. "Well, excuse me for trying to get out of here," he said defensively. "But you don't have to jump down my throat because you don't like it."

The only one who didn't speak out against, or in favor, of his plan was the blue eyed brunette who remained silent, engulfed in her own thoughts.

"Roxi?" Cassandra said softly. "You are quiet. Do you have no comments about this?"

However, before the girl could respond, Daniel cut in. "Why do you bother asking her, she's just going to be rude and not going to-"

"I'll go," she interrupted the blonde's speech, gaining the same silence that most of her words did.

After a few minutes of an uneasy silence, the owner of the idea stammered out, "Wait… what?"

"_I said_, I'll go," she repeated again, her words laced with a hint of irritation.

"That's surprising," Cassandra said a small smile coming to her features. "So time did wear at the rock hard exterior of Roxi."

"Don't be _stupid,_" she snapped. She pushed herself from the floor and began to walk around the room. "This isn't for 'the team.' The fact of the matter is that, you are all needed, not wanted, to do this sending."

"Roxi, this is not only foolish, it's dangerous. Why are you so willing to risk it?" the tall one questioned.

"Spare me the false concern," she said with a roll of her eyes. "Does the danger it entails make any difference?" She slammed her fist into the wall. "Choice is: stay here, or TRY to get out."

The others were quiet for some time, their thoughts entangled with her words. "The truth is that, at the moment, we have absolutely nothing to loose," Cassandra's voice resounded breaking the silence, "And everything to gain."

Daniel smiled to himself, what had started out as an almost collective 'no' was slowly turning into a yes. He had already gained the majority and he only needed the other two to '_consent.' _"Majority rules, we're doing it."

"I don't know… what if we can't do it," Lydia voice broke through, her word laced with uncertainty and concern.

"What if something goes wrong?" Xanthos' doubting voice came through.

This dissent from those two was beginning to wear at the little bit of patience Roxi had. She didn't wait for Daniel to respond, instead she jumped in with, "It _can't_ possibly be worse than _this_."

"Yes… I can understand that," Xan started. "_If_ we do this, we can't just send Roxi alone…" He trailed off at the end, leaving Lydia to finish up with, "She might _kill_ a few people." Roxi made no indication that she acknowledged the statement. She merely remained silent and smirked to herself.

"If you're worried about who else should go, don't. I agree with her… I'll go too," Cassandra offered to relieve the other two.

"Finally," Daniel muttered. "Now, this is what we're going to do…" After explaining the details and seriousness of this spell he sighed and said, "Now, being serious, once we start, there is no stopping. So… if you have to do _anything_ at all before we start, do it _now_."

When everything else was out of the way, the five elemental summoners stood in the center of their chambers. Daniel, Lydia, and Xanthos closed their eyes, held their hands together, forming a steeple with their fingers, and hummed lowly, concentrating all their energy on the two older girls.

The two girls watched as their bodies slowly began to flicker and become transparent before they completely vanished from their chambers for the first time in so many years. The other three remained in their chambers, continuing to hum, sending their energy to the girls so that they could complete their task. The incantation was coming along and it was only a matter of a few minutes until the two girls reached the heart of the Metropolis when the concentration was broken midspell when Lydia reluctantly sneezed.

-----xXx-----

"Who-aahhhHHHHHH!" The two girls cried in unison as their peaceful journey was abruptly halted and they began to plummet from the sky.

Cassandra landed hard on a pile of crates, breaking a few in the process. She groaned loudly as she rolled out from the debris. "That was slightly more than painful." Slowly, she got to her feet and brushed herself off. "You ok, Roxi?" She continued brushing herself off as she waited for a reply. When no snide remark came from the brunette she was traveling with, Cassandra's eyes went wide with worry as she called out, "Roxi?"

"Oh, wait til we get back," Roxi growled from behind the older girl, causing her to turn. Cassandra did all she could to not burst into hysterics. She bit down hard on her lower lip as she took in the appearance of Roxi. She hadn't seen her in 1000 years, and here she was, standing before her, sopping wet. Her black clothing clinging to her body and pieces of hair precariously falling in front of her pale face. She pulled a piece of seaweed out of her hair and tossed it aside before saying, "I'm going to kill them."

-----xXx-----

Lydia's eyes went slightly wide as she cursed, "Oh shit!"

The blond boy could feel their connection to the others begin to fail. "What in the name of Thanthos is going on?" he exclaimed from his compartment.

The young girl scratched the back of her head before she said, "I… sneezed?"

Daniel's eye twitched as these words left her mouth. They'd been trapped for over a thousand years and their first attempt at freedom was being foiled by a bodily function.

"I knew something was going to go wrong," Xanthos said from his chamber, worry for his comrades evident in the tone he took. "I mean-"

The blond rubbed his temples. This was the last thing he needed. He didn't need the other two going into a frenzy about this, what he needed was for them to concentrate to see if he could reestablish the connection. "Will you shut up and concentrate, because I don't know about you, but I can still feel them. We're still connected, it's just damaged."

"_WHEN I GET BACK I SWEAR THAT I AM GOING TO MUTILATE EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOU!" _The irate voice of Roxi echoed loudly. _"ONE BY ONE, SLOWLY AND EXTREMELY PAINFULLY!"_

"She seems angry…" the big guy commented after removing his hands from his ears.

"That would be understatement of the Millennium," Daniel corrected as he shook his head, wondering exactly what had occurred with the absent members of the group.

"Uhm… maybe we shouldn't reestablish the connection," Lydia said as her eyes darted around her room. "I mean is it _really_ worth it?"

"_What do you mean, is it worth it!" _Cassandra's distant voice came through. _"I'm glad to see you care so much,"_ she finished up in a dry tone.

The blond shook his head, ignoring all the voices instead he spoke, "Do you want to be stuck in here for the rest of eternity? Aren't you tired of this?" The other two went to speak, but Daniel cut them off. "I don't care what you want, you're both going to shut up and concentrate and I mean it."

-----xXx-----

Roxi shook her head, sprinting water as she did so. She pushed the loose strands back before ringing her shirt and looked around, her facial expression clearly saying she was not pleased in the least, "Where the hell are we?"

"On a boat," Cassandra answered, a small smirk playing on her lips.

She narrowed her blue eyes, glaring at the slightly older girl. "I gathered that much. _Thanks,_ Cassandra."

She mustered up the sweetest smile she could as she said chipperly, "You're so very welcome, Roxi!" When she noticed that Roxi's facial expression hadn't changed even slightly she gave her a look and said, "We've been confined for a thousand years, we're back home… kinda," Cassandra added as she glanced around at the water surrounding the boat. "Aren't you the slightest happy?"

"We're not where we're supposed to be, we don't know who is on this boat, and to top it all off," she said her voice getting lower and more threatening as she spoke. "I'M WET!" She yelled out, startling the other girl. "So, _what_ do _you_ think?"

"I think you're thrilled and want to give me a hug," she said with a smile as she extended her arms.

The blue-eyed brunette placed her hand on the hilt of her sword, and narrowed her eyes. "Cassandra, you are one of the few I can bare to listen to for over five minutes without wanting to jam my blade through my own neck. _Don't_ make me hurt you."

The older girl immediately put her arms down and quickly said, "But… that's just what I think…"

"Good," Roxi stated as she moved her hand away from her blade. She took a few steps forward, her wet sneakers squeaking as she moved. She cringed and muttered a curse under her breath every time her shoes made a noise.

"They didn't leave us with much of a choice…" Cassandra muttered as she followed the blue-eyed girl. "We have to take whoever is on this boat."

"Yeah, well let's find the _lucky_ individual, so we can finally get out of that imprisonment," she muttered bitterly before adding lowly, "And find and torment Yevon and his _damned_ soul for the _Rest. Of. Eternity_."

"Hey, who's there?" a strange horse voice called from within the confines of the ship.

Roxi glanced over her shoulder toward her companion. Cassandra smiled and shrugged. "I'll take what's behind door number one," she said as she pointed to the door that led to the inside of the boat.

With those words uttered, the door burst open revealing a half dressed, disheveled looking man. He was wearing a pair of bright orange pants, with a red bandana that held back his dark brown messy hair. His hazel eyes had a glazed look to them as he stumbled forward. "Who are you?" he asked, or tried to anyway. His words were slurred and ran together. Before either of the girls could respond they watched as the man ran to the edge of the ship and threw up over the edge.

Roxi cocked an eyebrow with a disgusted expression on her features. She then turned and shared a look with her companion. In response to Cassandra's previous statement replied, "And I'd like to take my own life." She then reached over for the hilt of her sword.

-----xXx-----

_This was the man we were supposed to depend upon to set us free. A thirty year old, washed up blitz ball player who had an apparent alcohol problem. Of all the Blitzball stars, of all the boats… we got this one. The one who couldn't walk in a straight line if he had physical assistance. This is what our future was dependant upon._

-----xXx-----

Cassandra looked at Roxi with a weak smile and said, "Maybe it won't be so bad, Roxi." Roxi quirked an eyebrow, and looked at the drunk who proceeded to grace the girls with the presence of his lunch, breakfast, and the previous night's dinner. "Oh by the elements…" she muttered to herself as she rubbed the temples of her forehead.

"Nice knowing ya, Cass," the brunette said as she unsheathed her enormous black blade.

The sight of the blade seemed to catch the attention of the man. His eyes went wide and he grabbed Roxi's wrist. Immediately the girl's eyes flashed with anger as her head jerked in his direction. Cassandra looked on with worry. She, as any of the other elementals, knew that unnecessary/unwarranted contact with Roxi was a huge 'no-no.'

"Hey, they'll be none of that," he said, his words slightly clearer than before. He glanced between the two girls before a grin spread across his features and he continued, "There is enough Jecht to go around."

"Oh, that's it," Roxi said as a look of disdain crossed her features. She didn't even give him a small warning before she forced her left fist into his gut. He exhaled sharply as he released her wrist from his grip. Bending over, he clutched at his pained abdomen. As he did this, Roxi brought the hilt of her sword down on the back of his head, immediately knocking him to the floor.

She had turned her blade, ready to jam the sharp point through his chest when Cassandra yelled out, "Roxi, No!" She bent down next to the man and rolled him onto his back. "We need him, you can't kill him yet."

The blue-eyed girl sheathed her sword before muttering, "He deserved it."

"I know…" was the grim reply of Cassandra. She shook her head as she watched Roxi walk away from the body of the man before turning her attention back to Jecht. She patted gently at his cheek. "Hey, come on, wake up," The elemental said in a vain attempt to get him up. As the time passed and her actions were plainly futile Cassandra grew impatient. She swiftly pulled her arm back and brought it back down as hard as she could, slapping the man across the face. "Get up, you ignoramus!"

He groaned and rolled away from her, but gave no other indication he was getting up. "You're doing it wrong," Roxi said as she tapped her foot on the ground impatiently.

Cassandra rolled her eyes before looking up at the young adult. "Well, by all means, please show me the way, oh great one," she remarked with intense sarcasm.

The younger girl didn't respond, she merely sauntered over to where the man lay. She pulled her leg back and dealt a swift kick to his rib cage. "Wake up, you stupid idiot!"

He called out as a sharp pain shot through his tattooed torso. "What the hell was that for?" he snapped, only to receive yet another kick from the younger brunette. He sat up rubbing his stomach, eyes narrowed glaring at Roxi, "Who the _hell _are you?"

"That's not of your concern," she snapped, her icy blue eyes staring past the man sitting on the floor. "You're going to do us a favor."

He scoffed loudly before slowly getting to his feet. "I don't know who you think you are, but the _great _Jecht does no one favors."

A frown crossed Cassandra's features as she stood crossing her arms. "Sit down," she ordered. "Right now."

"Whatever," he rolled his eyes before turning his back to them. He stuck his hand out, reaching for the doorknob. Cassandra's mouth twitched in annoyance as she took a few deep breaths muttering 'he's all we've got' to herself.

Roxi on the other hand, wasn't as patient as Cassandra… actually she wasn't patient at all. She swiftly moved behind him and kicked the back of his knee, knocking his legs out from under him. "She said_ sit down,"_ she warned.

Cassandra let an exasperated sigh escape her lips before crouching down before him. "You're going to listen to our story."

She explained in depth their story, everything from their duties, to how they had been betrayed and entrapped for a thousand years. She spoke quickly and clearly, trying to get in as much information as she could. Jecht listened to every word she said, not allowing his attention to wander, but in case it did, the cold glare from Roxi and the petite hand hovering over the hilt of the large sword brought him right back to the story.

"So, you're the elemental protectors?" The two girls nodded a yes. "And one of your own betrayed you?" Again the brunette females nodded. "And you've been trapped for a thousand years… and want my help?" Yet again the girls nodded, thinking that he finally had understood their purpose for being there. Well, that was until he laughed in their faces.

"What is so funny?" Cassandra inquired, her tone growing in irritation.

"You want me to believe that?" He laughed even harder when the girls nodded again. He stood and bowed mockingly to them. "I apologize my dear protectors, but I cannot assist you."

Roxi grabbed the man by the hair and pulled him down to her eye level. "You're not being given a choice," she said slowly, emphasizing each word.

The joviality in the man's appearance quickly faltered as a more serious one replaced it. "Hey, this isn't funny!" he bellowed as he tried to free his hair from her strong grip. "I'm not going anywhere, I have a blitz game… and I can't leave my kid!"

"He's a father…" Cassandra said lowly, doubt beginning to creep into her mind. She wasn't as enthusiastic to take a father away from his child. Her mind then traveled to the advances he had made previously and her doubt began to waver. "You're married then?"

"Of course not! But I can't leave my ex-wife with that cry baby, he needs a man to whip him into shape," he cried out as his hands felt around frantically for anything that would help him free himself from the death grip Roxi had on his hair. The doubts Cassandra had were instantly gone when he spoke those words. She felt no sympathy for the man either, especially as she watched him use a lead pipe to swing blindly at Roxi.

"By the darkness!" The girl exclaimed as she jumped back, releasing his hair and narrowly missing the end of a large metal pipe. She growled as she placed her hand on the hilt of her sword.

"You can't kill him Roxi!" Cassandra said quickly, reminding the dark elemental summoner of their duty. "Wait til we're free to do that…" she grinned wickedly as she continued, "Though, I said nothing about not hurting him... _badly_"

Roxi jerked her hand away from her blade and clenched her hands into fists as she stormed towards him, ducking down to dodge another swing of the lead pipe. She quickly stood back up and punched the man square in the face.

Cassandra watched satisfied as Roxi physically beat the arrogant man. Though after a few moments she was wondering whether it would be wise to try to get Roxi to stop her assault, he wasn't really useful in a coma either. While she was pondering over this, she glanced at her hands that seemed to be becoming slightly transparent. "Roxi, grab him, we got to go, the connection's weakening for some reason."

A sigh left the dark summoner as she stopped her onslaught of attacks and grabbed the barely conscious man by the arm, dragging him towards the other elemental summoner. Cassandra wrinkled her nose in disgust before she too grabbed onto his arm. "Now, to get him to Bevelle… or close to it… hopefully…" she said quietly before all three of them disappeared, leaving a lone, empty boat floating aimlessly in the sea.

-----xXx-----

_Getting back to Zanarkand was tough, convincing the imbecile to help us was tough, but the toughest part of this was going to be dropping him off somewhere in the present day. None of us had gone far out of Zanarkand, we had a duty to do and we couldn't suddenly decide we wanted to take a vacation, so we weren't so great with geography to begin with. Then there was the added factor that we hadn't seen the outside world in a thousand years. We didn't know what had changed, what city sprung up, or where Bevelle was for that matter._

_We were taking a shot in the dark, literally, when we dropped him off. We hoped it was close to Bevelle, but who knew. We just had to have faith and trust, something that was not exactly bountiful among us._

-----xXx-----

"_BEVELLE! FIND US AND FREE US! Or, you better pray you die before we get you," _Roxi's voice boomed through his head.

"_Don't forget it, or she won't be the only angry person you'll have to deal with," _Cassandra's calm voice said. The serenity of her voice was eerie and caused a chill to run up Jecht's back.

The blitzball player shakily stood on his feet when the threatening and cursing voices vacated his mind. He looked around and tried to gain his bearings. He was before a lush forest that seemed to be covered in…_ice?_ Finding this odd for a forest he decided to avoid it and go down a small pathway to the left. _'I have to find someone that can get me back to Zanarkand…'_ Jecht shook his head and muttered, "Crazy women…"

As he continued his journey of aimlessly walking around and rambling on to himself, he came across two heavily armed men. He approached them slowly before saying, "Excuse me, can you two help me out?"

The men look at him curiously, slightly appalled with his attire, before saying, "What business do you have with Bevelle?"

The man scoffed as a look of resentment crossed his features, "Bevelle? I want nothing to do with Bevelle, I want to get back to _Zanarkand_."

The expression on the guard grew serious as they said, "There is nothing at Zanarkand, but ruins. Why would you wish to go to the holy place of Zanarkand?"

"Holy place?" he said loudly trying to keep himself from laughing. "I love Zanarkand, it's my home, but _holy?_"

The two men exchanged glances before nodding their head solemnly. "You were in contact with sin, weren't you?" The loud drunk looked at them bewildered. "They say when you come in contact with sin you loose your memory. Praise be to Yevon you are still alive."

"Yevon!" he exclaimed as if a light bulb had gone off in his head. "That psycho chick, Roxi, was cursing about him before she brought me here. Said he needed to be wiped out…" he paused before continuing, "And some other… gruesome things."

The guard on the right looked as if Jecht had smacked his wife and called his baby ugly when he said that. "You _dare_ speak against Yevon?"

He shrugged his shoulders, "And if I do?"

"Insolence! Sin or no sin, he has blasphemed against Yevon!" The soldier forcible grabbed Jecht's arms and held them behind his back. "You are to be taken into custody and the Grand Maester will decide what it is to be done with you."

"What the hell?" he called out as he struggled against the men. Growing frustrated with the lack of obedience from the stranger, the guards knocked him out cold before dragging him to the prison in Bevelle.

-----xXx-----

_For the first time in so long we had a reason to hope. We had risked the little we still held but that same little was a curse so horrible that we would have preferred death over that captivity. Sure, being lost in time was a really bad perspective in that moment but one more day looking at the front wall sounded like a much worse nightmare. Of course depending on that guy wasn't something we were sure to have good results. Hence why all the optimism was toned down…no, actually it was nearly non-existent. After so long the only optimism left was sorely related to the wonder that Spira wasn't yet a wreck. _

_But it was a small flame in numbed hearts, small sparks giving some strength where we had thought it wouldn't have any more. _

_Those sparks, however, would turn into severe rage for sure if the idiot had managed to get himself killed before getting us out of there. We had played our whole future in that one move and none of us wanted to wait another millennium before being able to try again._

_Either that or finished killing whatever remain of spirit we still held. Yevon would have a reason to be proud of his work if he could see us at that moment. _

-----xXx-----

The soft whispering was still sounding across the silent halls and chambers of their enclosure in same tone it had been for an amount of time none of the three elementals could even muse about. Their whole attention was locked into the two presences they knew so well, knowing the second they lost their focus they would lose almost half of their own. And knowing Roxi, she would not be happy in the least for being dumped in an unknown time. Most probably Cassandra would have to suffer the listing of the enormous amount of threats the dark elemental would utter and join a few of her own for them to make her go through that particular situation.

"_One day I will understand what did we do to piss off Fate!_" Roxi's voice didn't sound particularly amused. There was a collective shudder among the casters.

"_Easy_," commented Cassandra calmly, "_apparently being born was enough. We are here._"

The flux of energy was cut abruptly as the energy the three elementals ran out. Without a support to sustain that half solid form, both girls fell. "_DAMNIT!_"

"Roxi? Cassandra?" Xanthos yelled. "Are you alright?"

"Shut up," growled the younger girl. "My head hurts like shit."

"And my bottom must be all black and blue by now," completed the lightning elemental

Daniel smacked his forehead. "I don't think we needed that much information, Cass." His eyes narrowed as he focused on the wall. "Did you manage to find someone?"

Silence followed his question. A mix of embarrassment and total exasperation.

"Why did we fall in the middle of _nowhere_?" Any more anger in Roxi's words and she would have been growling. And for some strange reason the casters were thanking the solid rock walls that were their shackles. At least, even if everything went alright, they had sometime to let the brunette cool down…or as much as she would. A very bad thing with the Darkness summoner was that she never forgot something.

"Oops...?" muttered Lydia sheepishly. Even more silence. "Come on guys it's not like I'm to blame for having to sneeze."

Cassandra massaged her temples slowly feeling the same headache Roxi had complained about roaring in her head.

"You _sneezed_?" Daniel appeared to think that intervening in that moment would be best before Roxi got carried away.

"Did you find someone?" he asked again. "I'm not sure if we will be able to try again and this was a one chance thing."

"Oh yes, we got someone!" The older girl said with false cheer and a frown on her features none of the others could see. "He will be able to get us out of here for sure!"

"For your own good, Cassandra, I hope that was sarcasm," Roxi stood from the floor, glaring in the vague direction where she knew her to be. "We got ourselves a drunkard! What were you three thinking?"

"A drunkard?" The rest could almost see the hint of hope Xanthos had allowed himself to feel begin to disappear. "How could you bring someone like that?"

"It's not like we had a wide variety of choices between bastard number one and broken crates." Cassandra cocked her head to the side, eyes narrowed. "You can't exactly blame us for that"

"And we aren't. We really aren't." Lydia made a small pause. "I was the one to mess up. I'm sorry, guys."

There was a shuffle of feet as the five sat once more, feeling the same never-ending weight of their captivity, the overbearing silence that filled those walls and that reminded them well of their position. Prisoners.

"Don't worry about it, Lydia." Daniel attempted to inject some strength into her voice however futile that may seem to be. "We can hope that it all will work alright."

"Hope isn't something that thrives around here," Xanthos continued with a sigh.

Cassandra just smiled for a moment. "Right, now it's all we have, that and each other." And a drunkard that should be getting there soon or risk himself to suffer at their mental claws. After all, they couldn't get out of there but that didn't mean they didn't carry any power...maybe playing ghost and not let him have a moment of rest for the rest of his life would make them slightly satisfied.

"Aren't we the _luckiest_ bunch?" And, as much as they all wanted to disagree with Roxi, at the moment, they were feeling everything but lucky.

-----xXx-----

_There are people that say fighting is hard, that dealing with the suffering in the battlefield destroys a person more than anything. They have never been held for a thousand years only to end up depending on a guy that had his mind locked upon two things. All involving round shapes if you get my meaning. _

_No…the hardest thing of all is the waiting. The painful wait we had done, we had to do still, the fear of having to endure even more years locked in that place we had learned to hate. When your hope resides on someone that laughed of your plight you tend to feel slightly more apprehensive. But we had no other choice_

_And wait we did…_

-----xXx-----

A/N: See! Told you it wasn't that long! Ok, well we do hope you enjoyed it, because we worked hard on it… and it would be nice if someone besides us thought so! Ok well, review… or –whispers- our muses, will get together with your muses, and rebellion will occur… which… -muses appear- AHHHH –runs- _REVIEW PLEASE!_


	3. Song of Freedom

Author's Note: -smiles sheepishly- Sorry about the long waited update. However, we lost some writers, gained a new one… Things were hectic. We want to thank everyone for reviewing, the personal thank you's will be sent out soon. We hope you enjoy this chapter, it was long worked on. Ok, well, do enjoy!

Disclaimer:

Reyavie: We own nothing, except the plot, the OCs, and the muses…

Shadray: One of which, seemed it necessary to EAT two of our authors… -gives look to Bellona-

KeRMySteRr: I however own our new author –grins-

Anbu713: -eyes go wide- er… when did that happen?

Ker MySteR: When you signed this contract that says I own you…-picks Anbu up and tosses him over shoulder- Ok well enjoy the story, the OCs we own, and the characters we don't own!

Shadray: And Review Please!  
Reyavie: It'd be greatly appreciated!  
-Whole crew waves-

---xXx---

**Song of Freedom**

Jecht opened his eyes slowly to see his environment. His whole body hurt from being subjected to the crazed woman's _tender care_ and his head was pounding with the beginning of a monumental hangover. "That's it," he thought vaguely, seeing the stoned ceiling "This was all a dream. I'm gonna close my eyes and will find myself back in my boat. Nothing to it."

He proceeded to do as he had told himself only to observe the exact same grey stones he had seen a moment before after he opened his eyes again.

"_Could you stop acting like a psycho?_" asked an unknown voice. "_We know you are out of it but it's not like you can clap your hands, wish hard and disappear_"

The blitzball player frowned, bringing another jolt of pain to his head "Who are you?" he growled out loud.

"Hey!" Someone kicked something metallic near him "Keep the noise down, you blasphemer. There are people trying to sleep."

He fell silent, and looked around. Bars were the first thing that met his view. He was in a cell.

"_I can't believe he managed to get himself arrested already._" That voice he knew. It was one of them, the ones that had brought him here. "_Are you that _stupid?"

"It's not like I knew I couldn't mention Yevon, you lightning witch," Jecht growled.

"I said silence, you scumbag." This time a silvery cup was thrown against the bars, its metallic sound resounding with the strength of a canon due to his already hurt head.

"_So you needed a sign and some drawings to suspect that people saying praise be to Yevon wouldn't like hearing Yevon being badmouthed?_" This voice, contrary to the ones before it, was a male one

"How…" Jecht stopped, either due to remembering the warning made by the unknown person or just because of the surprise of having several persons speaking on his mind "_How the hell do you know that? Are you reading my mind?_"

"_Give him a cookie._" The blitzball player winced involuntarily when he recognized that voice. His bruises seemed to know it quite well also. "_It's not like we want to be here, you bastard. More like we don't have a choice_."

"Get the hell out!" Apparently he forgot once more that he was the only one able to hear the elementals voices.

"I said silence!" Something was thrown in the cell, hitting him square in the face increasing the pain from the already horrible headache.

"_You brought us this_," whispered a last voice. "_Well done._"

"_I'm beginning to think the crates would have been a better option,_" Cassandra muttered again.

"_Only now? I'm beginning to lose respect for your intelligence, Cass._" The dark elemental's love for him seemed to have decreased if that was even possible and Jecht was certain that he would not escape unscathed if he was near her at the moment.

With a frown he chose to put the voices aside. An unfamiliar hatred was already connected with the so-called protectors and hearing them was only making him feel sick as well. So instead Jecht looked around more closely.

The cell was practically empty besides the cot he was using and a small cup with a jar of water beside it. On the outside of his cell nothing much could be seen. The sound of flowing water was a constant, reminding him of the fountains that filled Zanarkand's streets and the man he assumed to be the guard was nodding off against a wall, the chair he was occupying in a very precarious balance.

The rest of what he could see brought no memories forth. It was just too alien, all of it. He had lived all his life among the metal buildings of Zanarkand, thrived with the artificial lights, the hustle and bustle of the busy city. Now he had been dumped by in medieval ages by the owner's of the voices murmuring in his mind.

His life just kept getting better and better by the second.

Minutes passed in silence. It seemed the group couldn't force a connection with him far too long. Jecht smirked lightly as he lay down once more. The least contact he had with them the better.

"_Just because we aren't talking it doesn't mean we aren't listening_," the male voice said with a hint of annoyance "_I am Daniel, by the way._"

"_And what are you?_" was the spiteful reply, "_the Guardian of flowers and touchy feelings?_"

"_Wind actually_." Now even a five year old with a severe case of density of the mind would be able to detect the coldness on the eighteen-plus-a-thousand year old's voice. "_And now that I think about it you have a lot of that inside this head of yours. Want to see just how well your skull can handle it _moving"

"_Do I have to repeat that we need him alive for now?_" Jecht grinded his teeth together to the point where one would have to deaf or dead to fail to hear.

The voices quieted for a moment "_You don't have to repeat it Cassandra_," continued the unknown female voice. "_It's not like we don't know that. You have been preaching it for the past two hours. Oh and I'm Lydia, Space summoner_."

"_He's_ _Jecht, blitzball player and drunkard extraordinaire_," introduced Roxi with disgust in her tone. "_By the Darkness when I think a sneeze made us bring this poor excuse for a human being back with us…"_

Someone sighed in Jecht's mind and for a moment he thought it to be an echo of his own, as stupid as that seemed.

"_Look, I really don't think you'll be able to help us_," continued the other male voice, "_but you are the only one that knows about us so…_" Another pause. "_Anyway I'm Xanthos_."

"_Fire guy_," completed Lydia. "_So, leaving that place anytime soon? I'm kinda tired of being here_."

Jecht growled again. "_In case you haven't noticed, I'm kinda jailed right now_."

"_And we got ourselves a comedian_," Cassandra commented dryly. "_Just get out of there._"

"_And how do you propose me to do that_?" There was no answer from the other side besides a mutter of something that sounded too much like a threat.

"_Move, you idiot!_" ordered Roxi with disgust in her tone "_We've waited long enough. If you had done as we'd told you we wouldn't be here anymore and you wouldn't be in that cell_."

"_Basically, find a way to get out of that mess_," added Daniel. "_And I think someone is coming_."

Jecht took the chance to try and ignore the crowd in his head once more. There were people considered to be crazy over hearing voices that no one else could hear. He was sure, though, that the voices were the crazy ones and he was willing to pay dearly to have them out.

However crazy they might be Daniel had been right. Jecht watched in silence as a strangely robed man entered the room where he was being held. He was silent, sky-blue eyes carrying kindness and a kind of calmness that wasn't usually seen. An amused smile crossed the unknown man's lips as his gaze fell on the sleeping guard.

Maybe it was the weight of that gaze that brought the hazel eyes of the guard to open slightly then close once more. Then open…then close…until they finally opened in alarm as their owner jumped in the chair, the sudden movement sending both the furniture and the man to the floor.

"Idiot," murmured Jecht, observing the guard standing up quickly, an embarrassed look on his features as he did… "Why is he wishing victory to the guy? It's not like he's going to play Bliztball in that clown costume."

"_Are you always that stupid or this is just a special time_?" inquired Roxi blandly

The comment was left unanswered as the Zanarkandian watched the middle-aged man approach. His skin was light, soft brown hair barely escaping the constraint brought by the hat like extension of his robes and the circlet that held the fabric together. A light blue gem shone softly on its exact middle rivalling with the colour of his eyes, just as brilliant. Behind him walked another man, definitively younger. Dark brown hair was pulled behind his neck allowing his hard features to be fully seen. Dark hazel eyes shone with something akin to disapproval as he looked at the other man only to turn to disgust as he met Jecht's.

"_What a hottie!_"

"_By Venulio, Lydia, we really don't need to know what you think about the opposing gender,_" exclaimed Xanthos. For the first time Jecht agreed with one of the elementals. He really didn't need a woman's opinion on anyone especially a would-be samurai wearing a red coat over the sturdiest piece of armour he had ever seen. Really, where did these people live? The middle ages?

The man in the constricting….well, the one that just had to have extreme problems with moving with the gigantic robes that made him look…

"_He looks like an upside down flower_," said Roxi with distaste. "_Not even the bloody acolytes from the Darkness tower were that bad_."

Jecht's eyebrow twitched. He apparently hated to agree with her of all people. With a sudden jerk he turned to the man, the brisk modes that characterized him showing strongly.

"Who are you?" he asked bluntly. Someone groaned.

Daniel heaved a sigh, clear exasperation flowing through the sound as he tried to control himself not to snap "_Can't you just try to be civilized?_" It seemed not.

However the poor tortured man didn't seem concerned over the blatant disrespect. The man behind him was a very different story. If his fists closed with more strength he would need medical help.

"You are the one they call Jecht, the man from Zanarkand, are you not?" the first one asked calmly.

"What of it?" was the rebuke. It seemed that not even Roxi's _kind_ treatment earlier had done something to make him think before speaking.

The second man ran ahead, his features contorted into a scowl, hands twitching towards the giant blade he kept on his waist. "Watch your tongue, knave," he hissed.

"_That would be slightly hard_," commented Lydia, probably thinking something none of the others had the slightest inclination to know.

The light brown haired man turned slightly to his companion and nodded, all in his attitude saying "back down" before turning to the prisoner, a soft look on his face.

"My apologies. I am Braska, a summoner." His voice was so calm that only increased the fatherly aura he seemed to carry. Someone snorted something about too good to be true. "I've come to take you from this place."

The bliztball player gave him a suspicious look as he stood up. It seemed as if the recent events had made him think twice about propositions. Of course the one made before hadn't been one at all "Sounds sweet. What's the catch?"

"_Are you that much of a MORON?_" The lightning elemental didn't seem the least happy "_He's trying to get you out of there and we want to get the hell out of here, you freaking idiot!_"

"_Cass?_" called Roxi

"_Yes?_" Her voice had returned to her normal calm tone though a hint of curiosity could be felt.

"_Get out of my mind and stop stealing my lines._" There were loud shushing sounds as everyone tried to quiet the dark elemental. It would have worked more with the walls around them as Roxi had never been one to follow orders.

While any normal person would have been slightly angered or bothered by the man's question Braska didn't seem to be in the least. Something that was quite strange to see. He seemed to have a tremendous amount of patience.

"That easy to see was it?" the summoner asked with a half chuckle. "I soon leave on a pilgrimage…to Zanarkand."

"Seriously?" Surprise showed for a moment before being hidden behind the tough façade Jecht appeared to favour so much

"_No, he just came here to make fun of your face_." Sarcasm dripped heavily from Daniel's tone. Normally they wouldn't be so snappish…or most of them wouldn't.

Braska, without a mental audience or anyone to relate the comments going around, continued as if he had been talking about a walk in the park. "I would like you to join us. It will be a dangerous trip. Yet, if we do reach Zanarkand..." A small pause was made for dramatic effect. "...My prayers will be answered, and you will be able to go home, we think. What say you?"

Jecht didn't have much choice in the matter. The pregnant silence in his mind clearly said that he was not going to keep his health intact if the one answer they expected didn't leave his mouth.

"Great, let's go!" he said without missing a beat.

"_Good boy_," Lydia smiled roguishly in her chamber.

"_Do you even think he's going to be able to find us?_" asked Xanthos, frowning. "_He doesn't seem that bright…_"

"_He will or Roxi will have his head_," commented the wind summoner with a shrug. "_Either way he better do something or I'll join her_."

The summoner gave Jecht an appraising look, now he the one carrying a slight suspicion mixed with the amusement "So quick?"

"Anything to get out of here," Was the quick, extremely quick, answer. It was a reflection of how fast he wanted to get rid of the five elementals that seemed to take a liking for his mind.

Braska gave him another of his impossibly kind smiles and nodded once more. "Then it's settled"

The matter didn't seem to be settled if the man accompanying him had a word to say about it. The warrior walked to his side, fists still clenched and an aversion on his eyes that one would have to be tremendously dense not to see.

"But I must protest…" he started "This drunkard a guardian?"

"_Don't worry,_" Commented Cassandra. "_Give him bottles to guard and he'll do a fine job._"

"Hey! You want to step in here and say that?" For once the fact that he did say that out loud didn't matter in the least.

"_Actually, she would do that_," Added Daniel calmly

"_If she wasn't STUCK IN A DAMN CHAMBER LIKE ALL OF US! MOVE!_" Roxi snapped angrily, the last bit of her patience going out the proverbial window.

"What does it matter?" Braska continued calmly "No one truly believes that I, a fallen summoner wed to an Al Bhed..."

"_What is an…Al-Something-something?_" Mumbled Lydia. "_Sounds like a stupid name_"

"_Not everyone can be called Lydia,_" Daniel said easily. "_I, however, am more interested in the why he's deemed a fallen summoner…strange_" Nobody answered that remark. A thousand years locked away from everything didn't exactly keep the gossip lines running and they knew no more than him.

"Could possibly defeat Sin. This is what they say. No one expects us to succeed." A collective frown took over the five summoners expressions even though no could see it. Jecht would have thanked the silence if he didn't have the slightest suspicion that something should be wrong for them to be so quiet.

"_Am I the only one that thinks Sin is bad news?_" Asked Xanthos after a moment.

"_Got that only by the Sin bit, Xan_?" Cassandra's smirk could be felt miles away "_Seriously,_" Her tone left any kind of joking out, "_I think we're losing a lot of the story here_"

"_More like a thousand years of It,_" The dark summoner hissed. "_When I get my hands on that bastard I'll…_" Everyone choose to shut out the rather ghastly ways she would inflict pain on the former elemental.

The man, presumably Braska's guardian, flinched as if someone had hit him. "Braska, sir…" He seemed almost apologetic.

"Let's show them they're wrong," The summoner said suddenly, another smile on his face "A fallen summoner, a man from Zanarkand..." He made another pause, turning to his guardian, "And a warrior monk, doomed to obscurity for refusing the hand of the priest's daughter."

"_AH! He's free!_"

"_LYDIA!_" Came a collective mental scream

"What delightful irony it would be if we defeated Sin!" Hope and determination shone in his light blue eyes, a strength everyone could see.

"_Just what in Thanthos's name is Sin?_" Whispered Daniel worriedly.

Jecht seemed to get his fill then. All the conversation is his head was changing from serious to sarcastic then hormonal and back to serious again.

"Stop gabbin' and get me outta here!"

"_Ever the pleasant conversationalist,_" Smiled Cassandra. "_But at least you are getting the job done_"

The guard approached after a small sign from the summoner but his attitude showed he wanted to do everything but free the Zanarkandian. Jecht didn't seem to mind. Actually the smug smirk that had taken over his face seemed to translate what he was feeling quite well. Like an "I'm getting out and you can't stop me" message.

"Who's the lapdog?" Jecht asked as soon as he left the small holding cell, small cricks sounding from his bones as he stretched. The guardian glared at him in a way very similar to Roxi's when she was slightly annoyed which meant that is was bad enough to scare the common mortal out of its wits.

Braska gave his companion an apologetic look once again. The idea of the mess he just placed himself in seemed to finally settle in his mind.

"This is Auron, my friend of several years and also my guardian for my journey," He introduced calmly with no apparent sign of annoyance. "I would appreciate if you would get along. That means the insults will stop," A slight narrowing of eyes told the two that anything else would have dire consequences.

The same could not be said about Auron that was looking at the blitzball player as if he was a very disgusting bug that had attached itself to his boots.

"It's a pleasure," he said in his gruff tone of voice, eyes locked with the bars behind Jecht as if they were the most interesting thing in the world.

"_What a nice fellow_" Daniel said out of the blue.

"_He's going to be a dead nice fellow if he stops the idiot from getting us out,_" Threatened Roxi. "_And you. I thought I had said for you to move your bloody ass over here!_"

Jecht felt a part of his brain erupt in pain following that command.

There was a collective search for the culprit among the elementals but none came forth to assume the guilt of the action. And if he, or she, did the most probable thing would be being congratulated. With all the tension they were feeling whatever small action was welcome.

"_Right now I don't want to know,_" Confessed Xanthos

"_I would want to but I'm more interested in getting out,_" Declared Daniel. "_You should now say you need some time alone. Then look for us_"

Jecht raised an eyebrow very slightly, a smug smile appearing on his face "_How do you suppose I'll be able to trick the summer-ner to let me go alone into a city I've never seen before, looking for a place I don't have any idea of where it is to free…_"

"_I would be careful with what you call us_," Lydia singsonged with a cheeriness that was almost creepy. "_Or_…" The sentence was left unfinished.

Roxi scoffed loudly "_First of all it's summoner. Second, you lie and third you do it the old fashion way_."

"_You search top to bottom_," Completed Cassandra as if it was the easiest thing in the world.

At that moment Jecht discovered that they weren't the only ones Fate hated without a single drop of mercy. He, apparently, had done something very wrong to that particular cosmic entity and therefore was about to suffer for it for the rest of his existence.

-----xXx-----

_That was when hope flared in our hearts and, with it, fear. Because when one is betrayed too much hope is a sin, a danger…the bigger the height, the bigger the fall after all._

_But knowing that there was someone out there, that knew of our plight, knew that we had suffered, even if he didn't understand it in the least…it was pure and undiluted strength to our hearts and minds. _

_Never in the thousand years that had passed had we felt freer even with those walls around us. And that was a danger that we were willing to go through if the prize was destruction of our shackles. _

-----xXx-----

"_Would you freaking hurry up?"_ Jecht contained the urge to snap at the dark elemental knowing that it wouldn't have any more effect than the dozens of times he had already done so to several of the summoners. It seemed forever since he had entered the temple searching for the hidden chambers. Doubt had crossed the group over the location of the prison but after a short, but very loud as Jecht's headache was ready to testify, discussion they had reached the conclusion that the smartest option would be on the temple.

The 'Keep your friends close and your enemies closer' sounded all too appropriate to the occasion. So there was the Zanarkandian, receiving all sorts of weird looks from the faithful visiting the temple as he walked from side to side following the random instructions like 'There's one major energy source to the right!' Now that was one hell of a direction.

Jecht scowled to himself as he ran from statue to statue, from passage to passage looking for something he didn't quite know what to be. His mind went back to the summoner he had left behind making the preparations for the departure. Braska had been quite surprised when the blitzball player had asked to be left alone in the city, but had said nothing. If he thought that the man was crazy or just wanted to go sightseeing that remained to be known.

"_Do you think that maybe the summoner's path has something to do with it?"_ Asked Daniel out-of-the-blue

"_What?"_ Was the oh-so-intelligent remark from the brown haired man.

"_He means the Cloister of Trials… I think,"_ explained Cassandra _"Though I have no clue why you would think such a thing, Daniel."_

"_The woman…the one that came to mock us,"_ Started Lydia

"_And that I'm going to feel an incredible delight in torturing," _There was a moment of silence in which most wondered how many people were a part of Roxi's to-kill list.

"_Well, she was a summoner right?"_ completed the younger girl as if nothing had been said. _"Her energy seemed too much alike the summoners from Zanarkand to be anything else so I suppose that would give her permission to get inside the chamber."_

"_But how could someone bring five persons inside without anyone noticing?"_

"_The same way they got us out, Xan!"_ Continued Roxi with an undertone of hatred in her voice that had become all too usual for her _"It's easy to close your eyes when you have something to gain from it"_

Jecht looked around quickly, watching as the men and women walked around, kneeling in front of the different sculptures. The stairs leading the inner sanctum of the Yevon religion were, as always, guarded by two acolytes making sure the Taboos were respected, by force if necessary. He sneered when one of them looked at him for more than five seconds before turning once again to stare at the stone ladder. It didn't give any more information about the secrets hidden in the depths of the temple.

"Jecht?" The brown haired man turned to see the summoner he had agreed to protect. Behind him Auron waited, a glare on his face that seemed to be the only thing that Jecht would ever see from him. "What…" A very strange look was sent to him "Are you doing?"

There was a moment of silence in which the three men looked at each other and in which…all the other visitants looked as well ending up placing the Zanarkandian in a very tricky situation. He was already known as a blasphemer and now he was placing an I-am-crazy sign on his back by acting like a lunatic on the temple. With a frown he made a sign to the two and walked next to the stairs waiting for them to join him.

"Don't you think you have done bad enough to my lord's reputation by your actions since you have arrived?" Auron inquired harshly.

The blitzball player just narrowed his eyes "Right now I don't care about that in the least. Know anything about a secret chamber around here?"

"_Can you even think before you speak?"_ Cassandra glared at the walls in front of her since she wasn't able to glare at the man _"Last time we checked secrets **aren't** publicized." _

If the summoner hadn't thought that something was wrong with him he sure had to so now. "A secret chamber?" A piercing gaze found its way to sky blue eyes, a small movement of his brow enough sign of his confusion over that statement. "You do realize that whatever chamber you are speaking of, if it exists, must only be known by the members of the order of Yevon. Why do you ask?"

"_HELL NO"_ Was the collective shout of five voices. Jecht winced, eyes closing for a mere moment before a slow smirk crossed his features.

"What would you say if I told you there are five summoners trapped in this temple and they have been there for the past one thousand years?"

"That you haven't been too close to Sin but have lost your mind," Answered Auron gruffly.

"_Well done,"_ Daniel felt a huge headache begin to hammer against his head. _"Now you're getting a nice, comfy cell somewhere in this temple"_

"_No, He's not because I am killing him"_ Lydia threatened

Roxi punched the wall in irritation, showing no outer signs of pain. "_You sure as hell won't, Lydia!"_ Dark blue eyes narrowed dangerously, _"I so have first dibs on the idiot."_

He seemed unaffected the threats. Either he was too confident that they couldn't get their hands on him or he was just totally unconscious of the mess he had just placed himself in.

-----xXx-----

_At that moment I wanted to kill him. Any of us wanted in on that precise activity. For one thousand years we had waited in the dark for a way to get out. For one thousand years we had prayed to our gods, to the walls, to whatever sentient being that would listen. And for the first time we had managed to do something about it instead of praying…we had to place our hopes in someone that didn't have the slightest concern over us. _

_Our lives were just getting better and better by the second…_

-----xXx-----

"So you are saying that the reason for you to be here, and I mean in Bevelle, is five summoners that apparently are being held inside?" Braska seemed quite unconvinced even as he tried to hide it and not plain call the other man crazy.

"You don't believe me," Jecht accused, crossing his arms.

"_Would you believe if someone told you that amazing piece of information?"_ Daniel asked sarcastically. All the elementals were strained to the point were they could burst. It had been their only chance and they were risking it because one person couldn't keep his mouth shut.

Braska seemed quite at odds with what to say. The Zanarkand origin bit hadn't been easy to stomach but the idea of a thousand year old summoners was almost too much for him. Auron had a slightly smug look to his stoic face. If he wasn't who he was he would have said "I told you so". Fortunately for both Braska and him he was who he was and kept silent.

"Look," Jecht continued, "I don't care if you believe me or not right now. The only thing I care about is getting them out so they can get me back home"

_"Did anyone…"_

"_Lydia please"_ The space summoner could almost see the frown that she had watched time and time again taking place in Cassandra's face. The tone carried a veiled threat but the message was quite clear. _"Do not finish that sentence."_

Jecht paid them no mind; his mind was set. For him the only way out was getting the summoners free. Which was a great path of thinking in the said summoners' opinion. He turned to the staircase ready to probably do something stupid like climbing or beat the unfriendly looking guards to the ground…or just be beaten by them and be thrown once again in prison. But just in that precise moment his eyes were drawn to a small carving in the stones. It was almost hidden underneath the dust and marks of time and he probably wouldn't have noticed if it wasn't for a sharp intake of breath taken by the five summoners. Because there, engraved in cold stone, in the heart of Bevelle…was the symbol of Zanarkand.

"_This has to be a joke,"_ Muttered Roxi. _"This just has to be another freaking way for someone to mock us!"_

"What?" Asked Jecht forgetting that he was not alone and that talking to voices in his mind out loud wasn't the smartest thing to do.

Daniel scowled slightly looking at the wall in front of him, the image of that symbol burning in his mind. _"It's just too strange,"_ he finally said. _"Any symbol from our city was banished from Bevelle. Even songs and messages had been abolished in the last two years."_

"_It was propaganda,"_ Continued Xanthos. _"We were just monsters not people"_

"_The less they knew the better,"_ finished Lydia.

The blitzball player didn't understand really what they were meaning but he cleaned the symbol nevertheless, letting it see the light for the first time in several years. It was a large circle involving the Zanarkandian symbol nestled on the interior of a pentacle. On the points of the star a small disk could be seen, each with a different symbol carved. The rest of the circle was marked with strange patterns and lost writings that didn't make any more sense to him than the first ones.

"_I'm not liking this,"_ whispered Cassandra. _"Those are our symbols"_

"What?" asked Jecht for the second time in less than one minute.

"_By the darkness would you get a clue?"_ snapped Roxi _"The main symbol is from Zanarkand. The others are elemental ones. They marked each of our towers. Now the question is what in Nephthys's name is this doing here and for what reason?"_

A rough hand was brought to Jecht's face and he let out a shuddering sigh. He wasn't quite sure how they could see what he was seeing but the fact was that he didn't care about that in the least. He just wanted to get rid of them and the faster that happened the better.

He was totally oblivious to the looks he was attracting. The visitants of the temple had been scared away, quite literally, by a more forceful look sent by the guardian but both he and Braska waited hesitantly. "What do I have to do?" Was the muttered question.

"_Quite frankly?"_ Daniel continued _"We are most certain that…we have no clue…"_

At that moment Jecht had an urge to turn around and leave the temple without looking back. But the thought of how they were his only hope seemed all too bashed in his mind. That was the sole reason why he did no comments…and bashed his head against the wall a couple of times._ "Any. Of. You. Have. Any. IDEAS?"_

"_How about you stop talking to us as if we were a bunch of two year olds mhmm?" _suggested the lightning elemental in a way that was more of a forceful suggestion than a question.

"_How about pressing the disks?"_ Lydia continued before the conversation went down a very dangerous path. _"Seems better than staring at them as if they were the eight tower of Zanarkand"_ It was an idea as good as any other it seemed.

Jecht shrugged and slowly pressed the disk resting on one of the "arms" of the pentacle. The symbol carved on its bronze like surface was a small triangle whose borders seemed to be covered in waves of some kind. One of the sides of the triangle was already fading, destroyed but not by time. "Argh!" He backed away just as quickly, face distorted by pain as he grabbed his hand.

"Jecht!" Braska came forth but halted as he saw the blistering red wound on his new guardian's hand. The symbol seemed to have burned itself into the skin, the marks that had faded on the wall clearly seen now in the injury. "What in Yevon's name…?"

"_Nice choice of words there little boy"_ commented Roxi _"Great idea Lydia"_

"_It wasn't as if you had a better one_" Xanthos shot back _"Stop blaming her"_

"_Would you please just stop?_" Cassandra sighed out of the blue. She was beginning to tire, the stress of the whole situation wearying her nerves.

Roxi scowled slightly "_You pressed the wrong one_" She finally said

"_What?_" That sole word seemed to have been used a lot in the last minutes but this time it hadn't been the Blitzball player, too concerned over the marks still burning in his skin that Braska was attempting to cure as a completely uninterested Auron looked at the symbols calmly. It had been Daniel "_How can you know that?_"

The dark elemental scoffed slightly, the action a sign of how moronic she thought the question to be "_That, Daniel, was the fire symbol_"

"_Really?_" Interrupted Jecht with a groan where the sarcasm was well present "_Hadn't noticed_"

"_And Fire wasn't the first element to appear either here or in Zanarkand_" she continued choosing to ignore the other man "_Forgotten your own damned story?_"

It took barely a moment for that information to register. They _had_ indeed been neglecting their own history, the data drilled into their minds ever since they had been brought to Alliance's Keep so long before.

"_First came darkness_" whispered Daniel "_And from dark, matter was born_"

"_Wind filled the heavens, blessing of the skies_" continued Lydia "_Though why Daniel is considered a blessing beats me_"

"_Finally the Fire of Life came as Light burst forth_" completed Cassandra "_Of course, the song of the elements. I never did catch the end of it but I guess that can be the order needed to open…something_"

"Does this hold any meaning to you?" Asked Auron out-of-the-blue. He was still staring at the symbols, their cravings and patterns seeming much more interesting than anything else.

"N-" A sharp pain crossed Jecht's skull once more making the two letter word remain unfinished. "Yes" He spat out.

"_Dear Isis_" Lydia smiled "_They grow up so fast. I'm so proud_"

"_Make it simple or else he won't be able to follow the path of thought_" Counselled Roxi in the tone of voice that pretty much one had to be dense as a door to not understand she was insulting you.

Daniel closed his eyes for a moment. He suddenly was very happy that they needed the other man otherwise he wasn't too sure of how much time said Zanarkandian would survive the dark elemental. It had been hate at first sight it seemed.

"_Just listen alright?_" Called Xanthos "_First darkness, then space, followed by wind and…_"

"_By Seyane…"_ Cassandra interrupted "_Everyone we have a problem_"

"_Just one…?_" The lightning elemental frowned

"_Xan, do me a favour and don't comment_" She said with a frown "_In the song lightning and fire are not given a specific order. How are we supposed to know which one comes first?_"

Jecht didn't say a thing. Suddenly he wasn't so interested in getting them out. Braska had offered a way for him to get to his city. What good would it make have a bunch of old geezers behind him? His mental process kept coming back and forth in the last couple of hours.

"_I would not call us old geezers_" Daniel stated lightly "_Just because we can't leave doesn't mean that we cannot make your life hell. Maybe pressing both disks at the same time?_"

"_So I can be burned and toasted at the same time?_" Jecht shot back

"_Well yeah_," Lydia said simply "_That or you trying all of them one by one_" Her smile was definitively devilish at that moment.

The burn in his hand pulsed that same angry red it had showed barely moments before but he paid it no mind. Calmly he stood up straight and raised his uninjured hand facing the several disks.

"Darkness" He muttered slowly, hand touching the symbol on the other "arm" of the pentacle. In it could be seen what vaguely resembled a crescent moon. Vaguely because the whole lines that would have been the full representation of the moon were apparently being destroyed by…nothing. A dark cloud advanced slowly but surely over the astrological object. Jecht pressed gently before almost jumping behind as if the metal was about to bite his fingers off. The disk simply entered a crevice that was supposedly behind it, peacefully

"_One down, four to go_" Muttered the Fire elemental

"_Don't need to look so disappointed about it not hurting him Roxi_" The lightning summoner added dryly. The glare Roxi sent to the wall, and that remained unseen, was the only answer.

"Space" The disk held sorely an upside down triangle, like if it was some kind of cup defying the force of gravity. Near the top a single bronze line could be seen. Yet again Jecht raised his hand and pressed. The same dance that made him look like he was attempting to walk on little pieces of glass was done. The second disk entered just as easily.

"_Lydia, you sneeze again in your life and I'm killing you_" Daniel breathed deeply as the time for his symbol to be inserted came forth. His disk was the exact opposite of Lydia's, but otherwise the exact same form and shape. It followed its predecessors without a complaint.

"_Have you thought this maybe a trap?_" Asked Xanthos as Jecht raised the other hand to touch the last two disks. The one for lightning was a small circle from which several lines departed making it seem like sunlight falling on the earth. Of course the way the lines angled in certain ways showed that their falling would be much more dangerous.

"_He certainly thought it now_" Cassandra forced herself not to comment anything else as the last two disks were pressed at the exact same time. Nothing happened besides their silent joining to the others.

"_Alright_," Jecht growled "_All of you, what was that supposed to accomplish?_"

The stones from the staircase moved as if in answer, melting into each other and then to the side leaving on its place a hole big enough for a tall man to pass easily. Or for someone of Yevon's stature and with an ego as big. Yevon had never been one to lower himself to someone especially when that someone was something as normal as a door.

"_A way to enter maybe?_" Answered the space summoner with a touch of annoyance

"_As always you are a mistress of the obvious, Lydia_" Roxi rolled her eyes as she allowed herself to see through Jecht's eyes the door that had been opened. Not for the first time she cursed the way the unknown eyes obscured her natural ability to grasp the shadows.

"_This seems too easy for someone like Yevon_" Cassandra allowed herself to stop the slow pacing she had been doing and slid down next one of the walls. "_He was one to always have something hidden, to take a card from under his sleeve when someone least expected. He's allowing entrance with a children's song?_"

Daniel scoffed slightly "_Yes, we loved the last one he pulled on us. Lovely gift that was. As easy as it seems it is the only way for us to go_"

"_Us?_" Jecht's voice sounded incredulous "_I don't see you moving your good for nothing lazy asses out of…_"

"_I don't think you quite got it_" Lydia whispered slowly like she was talking to two year old that barely knew then meaning of some words "_We are jailed. We have been so for the past thousands years. What part of that you couldn't get?"_

There was a moment of silence that seemed to echo throughout the temple. If it was some kind of magic that had been buried beneath those symbols or just the forceful presence of the acolytes pushing all people out showing that it was the time to seal the doors they didn't know but they could almost bet it was more because of the first than of the latter. After all the weapons carried around were very good incentives.

A collective burst of pain crossed the five elementals, so sudden that none of then could stop the slight gasps of pain that left their lips. Jecht frowned lightly understanding that something was very wrong with that picture. They could be a major pain in their ass but he needed them.

Xanthos grimaced as he felt the pain cross his nerves like small snakes, infiltrating each and every pore of his skin. Tiny needles seemed to sting at the same time and from the groans and hisses of pain of his companions he knew they were feeling the same thing. "What in Venulio's name…" he winced again "What is…this?"

The sting began to lessen to a supportable itch. But still there and annoying as ever giving origin to an extremely painful headache and a feeling of weakness that they had not felt for a long time.

"Guys…" whispered Lydia, her voice barely heard "Something is really wrong"

"I can't hear it!" Daniel was the next and his tone held fear, a fear so strong that seemed to shake the ground where they stood, the very foundations of the temple.

Roxi began breathing deeply trying not to throw up when she realized what had happened. The darkness felt almost cold, the shadows screaming in a voice she could barely distinguish. "I can't feel the storm" Cassandra's pain was more sorrow than any other feeling, as if a part of her was being ripped from her body.

"He's using us," The dark elemental finally stated. "He's using out powers against us"

There was no need to ask just who the "he" Roxi had referred to was. They all knew. It was the supreme irony of Fate, the final touch of Yevon's will to destroy everything they had ever stood for

"What next?"

Not one of them answered to Lydia's question. The bad thing about Fate was that it always found a way to make the bad…worse.

---xXx---

A/N: Ok, well… we were going to have them get out this chapter, but then the chapter would have rivalled one of Anbu's so, we didn't! Ok! Well please do review! It's a nice thing to do! Alright, well until next time:

DaKeRMySteRr: Toodles! –waves excitedly-  
Anbu713: Don't Die!  
Reyavie: See ya  
Shadray: Shalom!


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